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THE 



TIMES OF DANIEL 



AN ARGUMENT. 



BY 



HENRY W. TAYLOR, LL.D., 

LATE A JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT AND JUDGE OP THE COURT OP 
APPEALS OF NEW YORK. 






/ 
NEW YORK: 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & CO. 

770 Broadway, cob. 9th Street. 
1871. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by 

ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & CO., 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



E. O. JENKINS, 

STEREOTYPER AND PRINTER, 

20 N. WILLIAM ST., N. Y. 



SYNOPSIS. 



CHAPTER L 
Prefatory 

CHAPTER n. 
Introductory » 17 

CHAPTER III. 
Announcement of the Messiah • . . £3 

CHAPTER IV. 
Subjection of the Saints to Antichrist 29 

CHAPTER V. 
The Answer of Palmoni. 2400 Tears 80 

CHAPTER VI. 
Chronological Corrections 43 

CHAPTER VII. 
Addition of 21 to the 2400 Years. 49 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Symbol of the Ram with Horns 50 

Note to Chapter viii (K* 

(3) 



4 SYNOPSIS. 

CHAPTER IX. 
Symbol of the He-goat .'. 73 

CHAPTER X. 
Somewliat more of the Ram and He-goat 82 

CHAPTER XI 
The Holy City trodden down of the Gentiles 1260 years 104 

CHAPTER XII. 
The same subject continued 109 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Restoration of the Jews 115 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The same subject continued 120 

CHAPTER XV. 
The Twelfth Chapter of Daniel 130 

CHAPTER XVI. 
1290 and 1335 Years 139 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Twelfth Chapter— Twelfth Verse 144 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Close of the Christian Dispensation 148 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Corroborative proofs from other Scriptures 153 



SYNOPSIS. 5 

CHAPTER XX. 
Third Chapter, Second of Peter, Tenth Verse 165 

CHAPTER XXI. 
The Answer of Christ to his Disciples — Matt. Chapter xxiv . . . 177 

CHAPTER XXII. 
The Coming of our Lord 187 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
The Millennium 193 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Summary and Conclusion 200 



TO THE READER. 

IT is a natural presumption on the part of the 
reader of this argument, that its preparation 
was prompted by the recent wonderful develop- 
ments which have signalized the history of Europe. 

So far from that, the whole argument, excepting 
the tenth chapter, and the note to the eighth, was 
in manuscript, with the design of immediate pub- 
lication, near four years ago. 

Some may think they discover a discrepancy of 
one or two years, between the time when certain 
events ought to have occurred, according to my 
system, and their actual occurrence. The writer 
admits no such discrepancy, beyond that resulting 
from probable errors in certain ancient chronologi- 
cal eras. 

The fixing dates to the fulfillment of Daniel's 
prophecy, has become a somewhat unpopular en- 
terprise. In the commencement of this argument, 
the writer had no premeditated design of placing 

(7) 



8 TO TEE HEADER. 

the final dates where they are found. But this fea- 
ture in the case, is only the necessary sequence of 
the argument. The writer would be just as well 
satisfied if his reasoning had led to different results. 
The radical principle of the theory presented is, 
that the last six chapters of Daniel, (except per- 
haps the first seven verses of the seventh chapter, 
which are necessarily introductory,) are devoted 
exclusively to visions relating t<a the Christian dis- 
pensation ; and in this consists my fundamental 
divergence from all former systems of exegesis oi 
this prophecy. 



CHAPTER I. 

PREFATORY. 

IT is many years since I became distrustful of 
some of the prevalent notions concerning the 
prophecy of Daniel. All the commentaries I had 
seen appeared to leave it deficient in some respects, 
in symmetry and system ; and indeed, to blend 
together those things, especially relating to time, 
which ought to be kept separate ; assuming, for 
instance, that as two terms of time were of the 
same duration, they therefore begin and end at the 
same period. As the leading example, I quote 
from Faber : " At the end of 1260 days, the judg- 
ment will sit, and the dominion of the papal horn, 
or the little horn of the fourth beast, will be utterly 
destroyed by the Son of man : at the end of the 
same 1260 days, the king, who magnified himself 
above every god, will undertake the expedition, 
which will terminate in his destruction; and at 
1* (9) 



10 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

that very time, the restoration of the Jews will com- 
mence. At the end of the same 1260 days, the ten- 
horned beast, which was to practice prosperously 
in his revived state forty-two prophetic months, and 
along with him, his false prophet, will be ultimately, 
that is, at the end of those forty-two months, defeated 
in a great battle with the personal word of God ; and 
lastly, the man of sin will finally, and therefore, at 
the end of the same 1260 days, be consumed with 
the spirit of the mouth of the Lord, and destroyed 
with the brightness of his coming." To the same 
purport Mr. Whiston, in his Essay on the Revela- 
tion of St. John, at page 76: " Not only the neces- 
sity of chronological synchronisms, but the evident 
force of common reason obliges us to acquiesce, 
and to esteem these five several prophecies, in the 
main, collateral and contemporary." 

A more careful examination has convinced me 
that errors have crept in, not only in the applica- 
tion of the prophet's developments to chronology, 
but in the generally accepted chronology itself. 
With very few variations, I wrote the four chap- 
ters of this essay, commencing with the third, more 
than five years ago, and subsequent investigation 
on my part, and events in the ecclesiastical world, 
have tended very much to strengthen my former 
convictions. 






PREFATORY. II 

Following the lead of the most eminent writers 
on Daniel, I had assumed the year 606 as that in 
which Boniface was constituted supreme Pontiff. 
More careful research, however, has satisfied me 
that this is an error. He was, undoubtedly, thus 
created Universal Bishop in 607, which epoch I 
have accordingly adopted. This, in itself, is a 
small matter, but as it is the epoch from which 
nearly every event foretold by Daniel is reckoned, 
it becomes desirable that it should be fixed, as far 
as possible, with perfect exactness. In a matter 
the value of which depends so much upon chrono- 
logical accuracy, as in this prophecy, I have been 
surprised to discover so many most obvious and 
momentous defects. 

The ninth chapter commences as follows: " In 
the first year of Darius the Mede." This has been 
assumed, I know not upon what hypothesis, to 
have been the year 538 before Christ, and is so 
noted in all the bibles having marginal references. 
We inquire who "Darius the Mede," was, and 
learn that he was undoubtedly identical with 
Cyaxeres, the son and successor of Astyages. 
Rollin, in his second volume, at page 97, sec. 3, 
of his history of Cyrus, says : " Astyages, king of 
the Medes, dying, was succeeded by his son 
Cyaxeres, brother to Cyrus' mother/' This he 



12 'THE TIME 8 OF DANIEL. 

dates 560 B. c. A writer in Rees' Cyclopaedia, 
says : " Astyages, after a reign of thirty-five years, 
was succeeded by his son, Cyaxeres, 560 B. c, 
who in the book of Daniel is called, \ Darius the 
Mede.' " Calmet says, "Darius the Mede, spoken 
of in Daniel, was son of Astyages, king of the 
Medes, and brother of Mandane, mother of Cyrus, 
and Amyit the mother of Evil Merodach, and 
grandmother of Belshazzar. The Hebrew names 
him Dariovesch, or Darius ; the Septuagint Arta- 
xerxes, and Xenophon Cyaxeres." There can be 
no doubt that Cyaxares, or Darius, was king of the 
Medes 560 B. c. It is presumed that the date of 
538, as the first year of Darius the Mede, was 
adopted on the authority of Archbishop Usher, 
who under that date, says : " Darius the Mede, 
son of Assuaras al. Cyaxares, the son of Astyages, 
took upon him the kingdom, delivered to him by 
Cyrus, the Conqueror." No other authority has 
been found, and it does not appear certain that the 
archbishop, himself, ever countenanced this appli- 
cation, as it is found in our bibles. 

On the contrary, he in another place says, at the 
year before Christ, 560, " In the kingdom of 
Media, upon the decease of Astyages, called Assu- 
eras, succeeded his son, Cyaxeres, Cyrus' mother's 
brother, as Xenophon says, to wit: in the begin- 



PBEFATORY. 



13 



ning of the first year of the 55th Olympiad, thirty- 
one years before the decease of Cyrus, which 
Cyaxeres, Daniel calleth, Darius the Mede." 

It would seem just as absurd to call the year 538 
the first year of Darius the Mede, because he re- 
ceived an addition to his kingdom in that year, as 
it would to call 1867 the first year of William, King 
of Prussia, because in that year he added large 
provinces to his former kingdom. This mistake 
has led to serious errors. The compiler of Daniel's 
visions, has evidently intended to arrange them in 
the order of their appearance. He has placed this 
ninth chapter after the seventh and eighth, which 
is right, according to the received chronology, 
while, if this correction be made, it would properly 
be placed before those chapters, and thus give to 
the whole prophecy a symmetry, which appears to 
be wanting, as it now stands. 

Daniel's visions, commencing with the ninth 
chapter, followed by the seventh and eighth, and 
so on to the close, constitute one continuous 
prophecy, foreshadowing the most important mat- 
ters, touching the ministry and sacrifice of our 
Savior, and the progress, discouragements, and 
< final triumph of God's people ; nearly all under 
symbolical forms, from the birth of Christ to the 
close of the Christian dispensation ; and they re- 



1 4 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

late to nothing else, except so far as is necessary to 
elucidate their history. 

Taking this view of the case, his first vision, as 
recorded in the ninth chapter, initiates the whole 
prophecy, by giving a brief account of the coming 
ministry and death of our Savior, and of the suffer- 
ings of the Jews, very soon thereafter, under Titus 
and Adrian. In the vision recorded in the seventh 
chapter, he had a general view of the church, until 
the close of the Christian dispensation ; and also a 
more particular one of the delivery of the saints 
into the power of antichrist, with an account of the 
duration of their subjection. 

In the eighth chapter he gives a more particular 
account of the power into whose hands the saints 
were to be delivered, under the similitude of the 
ram with horns, with a statement of the time when 
their subjection to this antichristian power should 
cease ; and also introduces the he-goat and little 
horn towards the south, which became exceed- 
ingly great, symbolizing the twin apostacy of 
Mahometanism. 

In the tenth chapter he merely corrects matter 
which might possibly mislead ; or, rather gives 
more minute information as to the 2400 years men- 
tioned in the eighth chapter, which was liable, as 
it stood, to possible misapprehension. 






PBEFATOBY. IS 

The eleventh chapter, in the commencement, 
brings forward again the he-goat, as a mighty king, 
and his successors, and ends with the overthrow of 
Mahometanism in the Holy Land. 

The twelfth chapter gives us, in its opening, in 
the briefest form, an epitome of wonderful events 
to occur immediately preceding the final consum- 
mation : as the restoration of the Jews ; the time of 
unspeakable tribulation ; the resurrection of some 
from the dead ; and after giving several specifica- 
tions of time, and their duration, closes with the 
announcement of final bliss, or the commencement 
of the millennium. 

As the times, relating to different events, have 
been unfortunately blended together, to the great 
confusion of the prophecy, so it seems to me, cer- 
tain great events have been confounded with each 
other, only because in describing these events, hav- 
ing a similarity in characteristics, the prophet has 
used similar language. The idea of " desolation/' 
or " abomination of desolation/' appears four times 
in Daniel. In the ninth chapter, it evidently refers 
to the destruction of Jerusalem, under Titus and 
Adrian. In the eighth, as clearly to the delivery 
of the saints into the power of antichrist. In the 
eleventh, to the desecration of Jerusalem and the 
Holy Land by the Mahometans, Saracens and Turks, 



i6 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



and in the twelfth, to the same as the eighth, the 
delivery of the saints into subjection to the anti- 
christian power, and to the birth of Mahometanism. 
It will be inferred from these prefatory remarks, 
that my interpretation of this prophecy of Daniel 
will differ essentially from those which have here- 
tofore received the popular approbation. 



CHAPTER II. 

INTRODUCTO R Y. 

THERE are certain events foretold in the 
Scriptures with such precision, and repeated 
so often and with such steady assurance, that one 
finds it difficult to exercise proper faith in them, as 
a divine revelation, and at the same time doubt their 
literal fulfillment ; especially as such fulfillment in- 
volves far less of difficulty than any of the expla- 
nations which seek to evade such results. 

Nearly all Christians believe that the Mahometan 
delusion will come to an end at no distant period 
of time; and this faith is a legitimate result from 
those lights which emanate from Divine revelation. 
So, too, all Protestants believe that the power of the 
Romish Hierarchy will vanish at about the same 
time ; and their faith is drawn from the same 
source. 

But there are other events foretold in the same 

(17) 



1 8 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

Scriptures, with equal force and exactness, and 
constantly repeated, about which our notions are 
vague, even if many sincere Christians have not 
ceased to believe at all, falling back upon the old 
skepticism — " Where is the promise of His com- 
ing?" 

More than one hundred years ago a large num- 
ber of intelligent and devout believers, drawing 
their inferences from a very careful study of the 
Scriptures, entertained no doubt that the year oi 
our Lord, 1747, would unfold wonderful develop- 
ments in the fulfillment of Scripture prophecy. 
Assuming their premises to have been correct, their 
anticipations were, doubtless, well-founded ; while 
that year witnessed the occurrence of no event that 
at all corresponded with such anticipations. 

They grounded their reckoning upon the answer 
of one saint, or Palmoni, the wonderful numberer, 
to the question of the other, as stated in the 13th 
verse of the 8th chapter of Daniel. " How long 
shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice ?" 
etc. According to the ordinary computation, as- 
suming the supposed date of the prophetic vision 
to be correct, 2300 days (or as is generally under- 
stood, years) would have ended in that year, 1747. 

The anticipated event did not occur, and on ac- 
count of the failure of this anticipation, and of oth- 



INTRODUCTORY, 1 9 

ers, seemingly, not so well founded, but little confi- 
dence has since been placed in any interpretations 
of the times of this prophecy ; and this want of 
faith has been constantly growing, until one would 
imagine that nearly the whole Christian world had 
become skeptical as to the explicit revelations of 
the prophet. I think I shall have shown, in the 
course of this argument, a very satisfactory reason 
for the disappointments of 1747; while those antici- 
pations were well founded, after making due allow- 
ance for certain chronological errors. 

The design of this argument is to ascertain, so 
far as may be done, the time when, 

First, The antichristian despotism of the Roman 
Hierarchy shall come to its end. 

Second, The Mahometan delusion shall die away, 
and disappear, so far at least as the Holy Land is 
concerned. 

Third, The restoration of the Jews to Palestine 
shall be accomplished. 

Fourth, Shall be the coming of our Lord, and 

Fifth, The Millennium shall begin ; several of 
which events have been too often confounded to- 
gether, and with the anticipated end of the world. 

In the course of this discussion, some other mat- 
ters of great moment will necessarily be brought 
in ; but as their development necessarily depends 



20 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

upon one or another of the above events, I have not 
thought desirable to specify them. 

The doctrine of the restoration of the Jews has 
been believed in all ages of the church ; but prob- 
ably, in no age, has so little been said and thought 
and prayed about it, as the present,, when the pre- 
dicted event is just upon us. 

All the prophets are full of such declarations as 
this from the thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel and the 
twenty-fourth verse, " I will take you from among 
the heathen, and will gather you out of all coun- 
tries, and will bring you into your own land. ,, So 
in the thirty-seventh chapter, and the twenty-first 
and second verses, " I will take the children of Is- 
rael, from among the heathen, and bring them into 
their own land ; I will make them one nation in 
the land, upon the mountains of Israel ; and one 
king shall be king to them all ; and they no more 
shall be two nations." Passages of similar import 
are scattered through the books of the prophets, 
and in such positive and varied terms, as to leave 
no excuse or palliation for unbelief. 

The coming of our Lord is affirmed or assumed 
in every possible form of expression, so varied, so 
full, so intelligible, by so many persons, beginning 
with our Lord himself, and repeated by him at 
least seven times ; in the Acts of the Apostles ; in the 



INTRODUCTORY. 21 

Epistle to the Corinthians ; in every chapter of 
both Epistles to the Thessalonians ; in Peter ; in the 
Apocalypse, as to preclude all possibility of doubt ; 
and yet we may doubt whether half the educated 
Christians fully believe in His second appearing. 

A period of universal righteousness and peace at 
some future time, is, with equal explicitness, fore- 
told by Isaiah and other sacred writers, when " the 
sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and 
the weaned child shall put his hand on the cocka- 
trice's den." 

There seems to be a general unwillingness on the 
part of Christian teachers, to give much attention 
to these interesting subjects. Many have, in for- 
mer times, made their observations and applied 
their predictions, in many cases, to the occurrences 
of their own times ; and their failures have caused 
others, as may be presumed, at this day, to be over- 
cautious. We are always disposed to give the im- 
portant events of our own times an undue promi- 
nence in the providence of God, which has been one 
of the causes of former failures ; and some too, deem 
it necessary, to look out for much more mysterious 
meanings than the great simplicity of God's word 
would seem to justify. Others, on the contrary, 
have been disposed to dwarf down to the compass 
of half a dozen years, those grand predictions, 



22 TEE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

which the prophet extended, in vision, to the final 
consummation. 

In the earlier days of the church, it was not only 
not desirable, but hardly possible for believers to 
comprehend the full import of the prophecies ; but 
every day's developments now give us new and more 
intelligible clues to their full understanding ; and I 
cannot doubt that it is our duty and our privilege 
to use our opportunities for elucidating the truth 
of God, so far as the light we have enables us to do 
it. 

I suppose my view of the mode of the fulfillment 
of certain prophecies differs from those generally 
entertained. I do not, for instance, imagine that 
the denunciations against the scarlet beast, neces- 
sarily involve the individual members of any 
church ; but are directed against the primary and 
prevalent cause of corruption. The saints were 
delivered into the hand of antichrist. Now it is 
not the saints who challenge the wrath of God, but 
antichrist himself. A very little change, therefore, 
will be needed to prepare the members of the Ro- 
man Catholic communion for acceptance as a true 
church, although the severest denunciations are 
proclaimed against the Spiritual Babylon. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF MESSIAH. 

IN what shall be said upon the subject now in 
hand, we propose to confine our observations 
entirely to the times of Daniel, and such other parts 
of Scripture as may tend to elucidate those times : 
and this, as a logical, not a theological argument. 

And to the perfect understanding of this pro- 
phecy, we must begin with the fact, which appears 
very clear, although denied by some learned and 
eminent men, that in all cases, namely, of prophecy, 
in this book, Daniel puts a day for a year ; although 
in speaking of things past, he may use the word 
" day " in its ordinary acceptation. 

For this use of the word we are not without au- 
thority, outside of the prophecy itself. In Num- 
bers, fourteenth chapter, and thirty-fourth verse, 
it is written, " After the number of the days, in 
which ye searched the land, even forty days, each 

(*3) 



24 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even 
forty years." So in the prophecy of Ezekiel, in the 
sixth verse of the fourth chapter, " Thou shalt bear 
the iniquity of the house of Israel, forty days ; I 
have appointed thee each day for a year." 

The ninth chapter of Daniel contains a prophecy 
of the coming of our Savior. This chapter com- 
mences with a declaration, that Daniel had learned 
by study, that Jerusalem was to be desolated seventy 
years, as foretold by Jeremiah, in the eleventh and 
twelfth verses of the twenty-fifth chapter. He had 
learned that, at the time of this prophecy, the sev- 
enty years of Babylonian captivity, were nearly 
accomplished, and he betook himself to prayer and 
supplication. Daniel was taken with the first cap- 
tives from Jerusalem ; -he had lived much of his 
time at Babylon, and had been honored by the 
kings, during all his stay there, nearly seventy 
years. At the close of his prayer, he receives an 
answer from Gabriel, but upon another subject 
matter altogether. The angel, or as he calls him, 
the man Gabriel, informs him, that seventy weeks 
are determined, to punish the transgression, to 
make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for in- 
iquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to 
seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the 
most holy. In the next verse, he divides the pe- 



ANNOUNCEMENT OF ME S 81 AH. 2 $ 

riod of seventy weeks, from the going forth of the 
commandment, to rebuild Jerusalem, to Messiah 
the Prince, into two parts ; the first seven weeks, 
and the second sixty-two ; in all sixty-nine ; and 
subsequently fills out the complement, by declar- 
ing that he shall confirm the covenant with many, 
for one week, in all seventy weeks. Whatever may 
be the conclusion as to the true meaning and force 
of the word " day," it is quite incredible that all 
the momentous things foretold in the foregoing 
category, could have been performed in the nar- 
row space of one year and a half. 

The questions arising upon these few verses are 
numerous, and exceedingly important ; and may, 
for the most part, be definitely and satisfactori- 
ly answered. But for our present purpose, we 
have to enquire only, as to the matter of time. 
How much time was indicated by " seventy 
weeks ?" 

Some have assumed that it comprehends merely 
four hundred and ninety days. Except the Jews, 
most men repudiate this limited construction, and 
affirm that " weeks" should be interpreted, weeks 
of years, that is to say, a day for a year, or seventy 
weeks of years ; four hundred and ninety years. 
We need not go into the argument, inasmuch as 
all, or nearly all, Christians fully believe in this ex- 
2 



26 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

tended meaning of the phrase. Indeed, one of the 
strongest arguments for the divine mission of our 
Lord, drawn from the Old Testament prophecies, 
is based upon this very interpretation. 

The " seven weeks " are the forty -nine years con- 
sumed in the rebuilding of Jerusalem. The " sixty- 
nine weeks," or four hundred and eighty -three 
years, to the commencement of the public ministry 
of. our Lord, and the "one week," the seven years 
of that ministry. Assuming such to have been the 
true meaning of this part of Daniel's prophecy, the 
inference, if he was an honest man, is conclusive, 
that he uses, namely, the same " days " for " years " 
to convey the same or similar ideas, throughout 
his whole prophecy. And hence we deduce the 
very great importance of this part of his writings, 
at this late day, independent of its direct reference 
to and prevision of the coming of our Lord. 

As the design of this argument is to ascertain, if 
possible, the duration of the several periods indi- 
cated by Daniel, by the phrase " a time, times and 
half a time," " 1260," " 1290," " 1335 " days, and also 
" 2300 " days, and similar expressions, and their 
commencement and probable termination, it is not 
proposed to examine those parts of the prophecy, 
which are presumed to have been accomplished, 
nor to recapitulate arguments used heretofore by 



ANNOUNCEMENT OF MESSIAH. 27 

commentators for or against our own views ; but 
leaving others to disagree, we shall fall back upon 
their authority in such things as seem to need no 
further elucidation. 

In the ninth chapter Daniel uses the term "weeks " 
- — "seventy weeks. " In the seventh "times" — 
"time, times and the dividing of time." And in 
the twelfth "days" — "one thousand two hundred 
and ninety days." Some have inferred from this, 
that in the one case, he uses a day for a year, and 
in the other does not. 

In order to make out the term of years in the 
ninth chapter, it is necessary first to resolve the 
weeks into days. "Seventy weeks" — that is to 
say, seventy times seven — 490 days. And then to 
resolve them again into years : that is, a year for a 
day. In the twelfth chapter, the prophet has al- 
ready resolved the time into days ; but these writ- 
ers argue that, as he does not require us to go 
through both processes required in the ninth chap- 
ter — " days " here do not mean the same as in the 
other case. 

We have no controversy on this matter, each 
must judge for himself; but it seems to be a dis- 
tinction without a difference. If weeks resolved 
into days, means so many years as there are days, 
in the ninth chapter, the writer cannot discover 



28 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

any reason for changing the meaning of " days" in 
the twelfth, and Daniel can be relieved from the 
imputation of deception in no other way. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SUBJECTION OF THE SAINTS TO ANTICHRIST. 

IN the seventh chapter, Daniel brings down his 
history, through the Roman empire, till the be- 
ginning of the Romish Heirarchy. The twenty- 
fourth verse is as follows : " The ten horns out of 
this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise ; and 
another shall arise after them, and he shall be 
diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three 
kings." For the proof that the "little horn," the 
same as this king, " diverse from the first," repre- 
sents the Romish Heirarchy, or we should rather 
say, the usurpations of the See of Rome, we refer 
to those writers who have treated of this matter at 
large, for more than a hundred years past. The 
twenty -fifth verse says, " He shall speak great 
words against the Most High, and shall wear out 
the saints of the Most High, and think to change 
times and laws ; and they (the saints) shall be given 

(*9) 



3 o THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

into his hand until a time, times and the dividing 
of time." The identity of the Roman Pontiff, here 
delineated, cannot be mistaken. But passing over 
the evidence of this, of which the older books are 
full, our design is to show more clearly and sat- 
isfactorily the period designated by the phrase 
"time, times and the dividing of time ;" when it 
commenced and when it will end. 

Most of those commentators who adopt the opin- 
ion that the word "day" is used for a year, by 
Daniel, fix the commencement of that epoch, and 
it seems with unquestionable truth, when the Em- 
peror Phocas constituted Boniface, Universal Bish- 
op and supreme head of the Church. This was the 
year 607. Previous to that time, the Patriarchs of 
Constantinople had been seeking from the Roman 
emperors a confirmation of the same dignity to 
them. At that time Gregory, sometimes called 
Gregory the Great, was Bishop of Rome, and pre- 
ceding him was Pelagius. The opinions of these 
two Roman prelates, immediately preceding the 
creation of a universal bishop, are very significant 
and not a little curious. We will first quote a para- 
graph from Archbishop Laud : " About this time 
broke out the ambition of John, Patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, affecting to be universal bishop. He 
was countenanced in this by Mauritius the em- 



SUBJECTION OF SAINTS TO ANTICHRIST 31 

peror ; but sorely opposed by Pelagius and St. 
Gregory, insomuch that St. Gregory plainly says 
this pride of his shows that the times of antichrist 
were near. So as yet (and this was near upon the 
point of six hundred years after Christ), there was 
no universal bishop ; no one monarch over the 
militant church. But Mauritius being deposed 
and murdered by Phocas, Phocas conferred upon 
Boniface the Third that very honor, that two of 
his predecessors had declaimed against, as mon- 
strous and blasphemous, if not antichristian. Where, 
by the way, either these two popes, Pelagius and 
St. Gregory, erred in this weighty business, about 
an universal bishop, over the whole church ; or, if 
they did not err, Boniface and the rest which, after 
him, took it upon them, were in. their very prede- 
cessors' judgment, antichristian. ,, 

We will now take a quotation from the writings 
of each of them, Pelagius and Gregory. 

Pelagius says : " Let John take notice of this 
himself, that unless he quickly correct his error, 
he shall be excommunicated by us. Do not you 
also attend to the name of universality, which he 
unlawfully usurps to himself. Let none of the pa- 
triarchs use so profane an appellation. You see, 
dear brethren, what it is that is coming upon us 
presently ; while such perverse beginnings break 



32 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

out, even among the sacerdotal order. For this is 
near to him, concerning whom it is thus written, 
i He is king over all the children of pride' \ 

St. Gregory says: " My companion of the sacer- 
dotal order, John, endeavors to have the title of 
universal bishop. Let such a name of blasphemy be 
banished from the hearts of Christians. Now I say, 
with assurance, that whosoever calls himself the 
mtiver sal priest, or desires to be so called, he is the 
forerunner of antichrist, in his insolence. But be- 
cause, as we now see, the end of the world is ap- 
proaching, the enemy of mankind has appeared in 
his forerunner ; that he may have those very priests 
his forerunners in this proud title, who ought to 
oppose him, by living well and humbly.'' 

It is hardly possible to avoid the conclusion that 
this 1260 years commenced with the year 607, with- 
out doing violence to the known facts of history. 
Nevertheless, there have been eminent and acute- 
minded men, who refer the whole prophecy to the 
short period of Antiochus Epiphanes ; and, conse- 
quently, give the words of the prophet their nat- 
ural and common signification, using the word 
" day" here for a natural day. This is an easy 
mode of disposing of a great prophecy. But there 
can be no satisfactory solution of it upon such a 
theory. Others may satisfy themselves that God 



SUBJECTION OF SAINTS TO ANTICHRIST. 



33 



would communicate so grand and glorious a reve- 
lation, under such marvellous surroundings, affect- 
ing the interests of comparatively a few people, 
during three or half a dozen years. But we must 
insist that a priori, independent of all other consid- 
erations, we should hold the wonderful display of 
God's glory in his manifestation to Daniel incon- 
sistent with such a theory, But besides this, 
throughout the whole prophecy, we find inter- 
woven the most incontestable evidence, that it was 
intended to foreshadow coming events, down to 
the time when the judgment shall sit ; and with no 
desire to controvert any preconceived notions, we 
may be permitted to notice what appears to be a 
very great inconsistency in those who hold this di- 
minutive doctrine. They all admit that the seventy 
weeks mentioned in the ninth chapter cover a pe- 
riod of 490 years ; that is to say, that the prophet 
there uses a day prophetically for a year. Now it 
seems like charging Daniel with intentional decep- 
tion, if he, in speaking of a prophetical time in one 
vision, uses " days" for "years," and then in another 
vision, in the same series of prophecies, uses days in 
their common acceptation; and this view of the 
case becomes the more impressive, on the theory 
that the ninth chapter is but the first of a consecu- 
tive series of visions, all the others resulting there- 



3 4 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

from, and all forming but one connected chain of 
prophecy, relating to the Christian dispensation, 
from the birth of Christ down to the time of his 
second appearance. 

If, then, the commencement of this division of 
time shall prove to have been the date supposed, 
namely, when Boniface was decreed by Phocas to 
be the supreme head of the church ; as that occur- 
red in the year 607 (erroneously assumed by many 
authors to have been in 606) of the Christian era ; 
and if our views be correct as to the length of time 
expressed by the phrase, " time, times and half a 
time ;" then the saints shall be delivered out of the 
hand of the antichristian power in the year, or 
about the year of our Lord 1867. We may here 
observe, that we should not consider a variance or 
discrepancy of one or two years, in so long a lapse 
of time, as of any considerable importance. But 
from the time Boniface assumed his antichristian 
office and functions, the time of their continuance 
will be 1260 years. The closing verses of this sev- 
enth chapter, seem to announce the universal reign 
of righteousness on the earth — the commencement 
of the millennium. We are not to presume, however, 
for there is nothing to sustain the presumption, 
that this happy period will commence immediately 
after the fall of antichrist ; for there are yet many 



SUBJECTION OF SAINTS TO ANTICHRIST. 35 

important events, foretold, and to be accomplished 
before the fullness of that glorious dispensation 
shall be ushered in. " The kingdom and the great- 
ness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, shall 
be given to the people of the saints of the Most 
High, and all dominions shall obey and serve him." 



CHAPTER V. 

THE ANSWER OF PALMONI — TWENTY-FOUR HUN- 
DRED YEARS. 

IT will be observed that while the fact, that the 
saints shall be delivered into the hands of anti- 
christ is foretold in clear and perfectly intelligible 
terms, and its duration, the era of its commence- 
ment is not stated, nor does chapter seventh give 
any fact from which it may be discovered by any 
possible course of argument. But in the eighth 
chapter the prophet gives a clue by which nearly 
all the times mentioned by him may be ascertained. 
After a most wonderful development of future 
events, comprehending the twin delusions of Rome 
and Mahomet, all comprised in a few words, the 
prophet heard one saint speaking, and another saint 
said unto that certain saint which had spoken, 
" How long shall be the vision concerning the daily 
sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give 
both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden un- 
(36) 






THE TWENTY-FOUR HUNDRED YEARS. 37 

der foot?" The answer is given in the briefest and 
apparently most intelligible terms : " Unto two 
thousand and three hundred days; then shall the 
sanctuary be cleansed." The term of 1260 years, 
as expressed in the preceding vision, in the seventh 
chapter, could give no insight into the date of its 
termination, inasmuch as the time when the saints 
of the Most High should be delivered into the 
hands of the antichristian power was not known. 
It was only foretold that the}, should remain sub- 
ject to that grinding and withering despotism so 
long. This answer of " Palmoni" the wonderful 
number er, is intended to give a clue to discover the 
termination of the other period, as the two incon- 
testably end at the same time. Its conclusion was 
anxiously expected by Bible students, and with 
great plausibility, about the year 1747, as this would 
accomplish 2300 years from the date of Daniel's 
prophecy. But as no such events happened at or 
near that time, as might have reasonably been an- 
ticipated, they were greatly disappointed ; as those 
have been who had fixed upon sundry later peri- 
ods. So that at this time the best and most reliable 
commentators have generally settled down upon 
the conviction that, as Daniel has not given us any 
epoch from which the 2300 years is to be calcu- 
lated, we must remain in ignorance, until the great 



38 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

things foretold by him shall have been accomplish- 
ed. Now this conclusion seems to be in direct op- 
position to the Divine mind. A form of words de- 
livered to us by the Omniscient, which we cannot 
understand, would appear to be unworthy of the 
Great Teacher. Besides, we are assured that all 
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is 
profitable for our instruction. Wherein, then, 
would be the instruction conveyed to us by such a 
form of words, which we could not understand ? 
And more than this, and at the close of this prophecy 
of Daniel, we are assured that " none of the wicked 
shall understand ; but the wise shall understand/' 
And our Saviour, quoting from this very prophecy, 
exclaims, " Whoso readeth, let him understand/' 
To me there seems no more logical conclusion than 
that God intended that we should understand this 
prophecy, from time to time, as it is fulfilled, and 
reasonably before, and has given us the means and 
the power so to understand it. 

In all the other prophecies of Daniel relating to 
time, except in one parallel case, he has given the 
epoch, or a reference to some other epoch from which 
to reckon the event. The seventy weeks of years 
were to commence at the going forth of the com- 
mandment to rebuild Jerusalem. The 1260 years 
were to commence from the delivery of the saints 



THE TWENTY-FOUR HUNDRED YEARS. 



39 



into the power of antichrist ; but nowhere does he 
specify any point of time, from which to date the 
beginning of the 2300 years. It seems, therefore, a 
necessary inference, that this term must begin at 
the date of the prophecy. This seems also to be 
the plain meaning of the language used, " How 
long shall be the vision?" "Unto" (or better 
"until") "two thousand and three hundred" (days) 
"years." From what time? Obviously from the 
date of the present speaking. Judging of the ques- 
tion, intrinsically, without reference to outside oc- 
currences, no one could give it any other meaning. 
This vision appeared to Daniel, according to 
Archbishop Usher, about the year 553 before Christ. 
Proceeding from that date, and 2300 years would 
have ended in the year 1747. But no event occur- 
red in the ecclesiastical world, at or near that time 
which especially arrested the attention of men ; and 
as it cannot be presumed that God would suggest 
to Daniel so grand a vision, without any adequate 
result, we are constrained to believe that there is 
some error in chronology which needs revision and 
correction. On inquiry, we learn that in this place 
the version of the Septuagint differs from the He- 
brew text. There, the time to the end, in the an- 
swer given, is 2400 years ; and in many points of 
difference, this version is considered by learned 



40 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



men quite as reliable as the other. If, then, we as- 
sume the correctness of the Septuagint reading, the 
period of 2400 years would have expired in the 
year 1847. As. the last six chapters of this proph- 
ecy of Daniel relate exclusively to ecclesiastical 
and sacred matters, never mentioning mere secular 
concerns, except when closely connected with, or 
necessary to the explanation of the other, we must 
look to the religious world for an elucidation 
of this prophecy. The question presented was 
double, of which more will be said hereafter. The 
answer reached but one : " Then shall the sanctuary 
be cleansed. ,, This answer refers to the Roman 
Hierarchy. We are thus led to inquire whether 
any event occurred about the year 1847, affecting 
the power of the Pope concurrent with the answer 
given in this portion of the prophecy. 

About the close of 1846, a revolution took place 
at Rome. Resistance was made, and successfully 
made to the domination of the Roman Pontiff. 
His own people rose, almost unanimously, against 
him, and expelled him from the eternal city ; so 
that, in 1848, he sought refuge and safety in the 
dominions of a neighboring power, making his re- 
sidence at Gaeta, within the territories of the King 
of Naples. Had this revolution succeeded, as its 
authors designed it should, it would seem to have 



THE TWENTY-FOUR HUNDRED YEARS. 41 

been a fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy to the let- 
ter. But the Pope was very soon taken under the 
patronage of France, and by the power of France 
returned to Rome, where he has been kept in 
power until the present time ; thus effectually frus- 
trating the designs of the people of Rome, by 
whose efforts he had been expelled from that city. 
This is certainly a very extraordinary condition of 
things ; and, in reference to a subsequent vision of 
the prophet, we cannot give it too much impor- 
tance. Just 2400 years after the prophecy ; by the 
Romans themselves ; by his own ecclesiastical sub- 
jects ; by a people who, for more than 1200 years, 
had sustained and supported the temporal and 
spiritual power of the Pope, he was expelled and 
made an outcast from the imperial city. So far as 
they could do it, they had deposed the Pope, and 
utterly annihilated his antichristian existence. 

Why, then, we inquire, was not his power ab- 
solutely broken, and the persecution of the saints 
forever ended? Because, and only because, the 
French army " withstood " the purpose and efforts 
of his own subjects. That army " withstood " the 
people of Rome, by restoring their banished Pope, 
and by supporting him there, in the seat of his 
power, against their will, from then to the present 
time, 1867. It would be strange, indeed, if such a 



42 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

prophecy as this should, at the moment of its fulfill- 
ment, be thwarted and frustrated thus by a foreign 
government, and nothing foreshadowing such a re- 
sult appear in the prophecy. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CHRONOLOGICAL CORRECTIONS. 

THE tenth chapter commences as follows : " In 
the third year of Cyrus king of Persia. ,, 
This has been assumed by almost all biblical stu- 
dents, on the authority of Archbishop Usher, to 
have been in the year 534 before Christ ; which has 
also been assumed, on like authority, to have been 
the time of the vision, that is, the third year of 
Cyrus, king of the consolidated kingdom of Persia. 
It becomes necessary here to break off the regular 
course of our argument, to correct two errors in 
this chronology. 

It may be affirmed, with perfect confidence, that 
Daniel was not living at the time specified, 534 
B. c. The last verse of the first chapter of this 
prophecy is in these words: "And Daniel con- 
tinued even unto the first year of king Cyrus. " 
The obvious meaning attached to this phrase is, 

(43) 



44 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

that he died in that year. As it is presumed that 
Daniel himself did not write it, but his compiler, 
undoubtedly after his death, it would be absurd 
for him to say that he lived unto the first year if 
he knew that he lived to and after the third. It 
would be still more absurd to make this statement 
when, in the prophecy itself, a little further on, ap- 
peared the fact that he was alive two years later. 
This absurdity appears even more glaring- when 
we examine the Septuagint reading. The word 
translated " continued " is in Greek egeneto, which 
might be better rendered "was alive," meaning 
very nearly, though not quite the same. But the 
word edSj translated " unto," means more properly 
" until," which is somewhat inconsistent with the 
fact that he lived years thereafter. 

The reader may here, very properly, inquire, 
What, then, is the meaning of the introductory 
paragraph before quoted ? We will endeavor to 
make it plain to the perception of every one. 

The introduction to the eighth chapter is as fol- 
lows : " In the third year of the reign of king Bel- 
shazzar." This seems to have been universally 
assumed, and appears always to be noted in Bible 
references as the year 553 B.C. Some authorities 
(Mr. Hales among them), however, place the be- 
ginning of Belshazzar's reign in the year 558 B. C, 



CHRONOLOGICAL CORRECTIONS. 45 

while Calmet fixes it in 555. In either case, it is 
impossible that the third year of his reign should 
fall upon any portion of the year 553. The larger 
portion would fall within the year 555 or 552; but 
making allowance for the difference between the 
Jewish calendar and our own, a considerable part 
might fall within the year 554, which we assume, 
for our present purpose, to be the correct reading. 

Let us now pass over to Cyrus. According to 
the commonly received opinion, he began his 
reign in Persia, 559 B.C. (or according to Calmet, 
554); over Media 551, and over his consolidated 
empire of Persia, Media and Babylon, in 536. 

It is generally assumed that he commenced his 
reign over Persia proper in 559. Almost all writers 
rely upon the authority of Xenophon. But how- 
ever reliable Xenophon may be in other matters, 
his account seems, in this particular, very uncer- 
tain. According to Rollin, who takes Xenophon 
for his authority throughout, " the years of Cyrus' 
reign are computed differently. Some make it 
thirty years, beginning from his first setting out 
from Persia, at the head of an army, to succor his 
uncle Cyaxeres; others make it to be but seven 
years, because they date it only from the time 
when, by the death of Cyaxeres and Cambyses, he 
became sole monarch of the whole empire." In- 






46 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

deed, relying upon the account of that historian 
alone, it would be difficult to fix upon any date. 

Upon this point Herodotus appears to be much 
more clear, intelligible and reliable. His account 
is as follows : " He (Cyrus) next attacked and took 
Sardis, and made Croesus prisoner (b. c. 546). He 
besieged and took the City of Babylon, B.C. 538, 
which he entered by diverting the course of the 
Euphrates, and leading his army into the city by 
the dry bed of the river. At last he carried his 
arms against the Massagetae, and was defeated and 
slain by Tomyris, their queen, B.C. 529. who had 
his head cut off and put into a leathern bag full of 
human blood. " "He had reigned twenty -nine 
years.' , If, then, you add the 29 years of his 
reign to 529, the year before Christ in which he 
was killed, it shows that he commenced his reign 
in the year 558. 

Such being the case, it will be seen that the 
third year of Cyrus, as well as the third of Belshaz- 
zar (making allowance for the difference between 
the Jewish calendar and our own), might fall partly 
on the five hundred and fifty-fourth year B. c. 

Let us now return to the prophecy of Daniel. 
" In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia." Was 
this the year 534 B. c. ? We cannot so understand 
it. In the eighth chapter he had recorded a vision 



CHRONOLOGICAL CORRECTIONS. 47 

which appeared to him " in the third year of king 
Belshazzar." In the tenth chapter he is about to 
narrate another vision, but relating to the same 
subject, and supplementary thereto. He then, in 
this first verse, refers to the former vision, viz : 
" In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia. ,, 
Here, apparently, may seem to be a discrepancy, 
but one easily explained. Daniel's residence was 
at Babylon. In those days, the epoch of almost all 
time was the commencement of the reign of the 
existing sovereign. If, therefore, Daniel was at 
the court of Babylon, it would be correct, and 
most natural that, in writing an account of his 
vision, he should use the epoch of the Babylonians, 
which was the beginning of Belshazzar's reign ; 
and, when, afterwards, being at the court of Cyrus, 
and having occasion to refer to the same event, it 
was equally natural and proper that he should use 
the epoch of the Persians, which was the reign of 
Cyrus. His vision, therefore, as related in the 
eighth chapter, is correctly stated to have occur- 
red " in the third year of king Belshazzar ;" and 
the same vision is, with like propriety, stated in 
the tenth chapter, to have occurred " in the third 
year of Cyrus king of Persia/' when referred to at 
a subsequent period, he then being at the court of 
Cyrus. This view of the case seems to be fully 



4 8 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



confirmed by the fact, that, a little further on, in 
the first verse of the eleventh chapter, and in the 
same vision, Daniel refers to a former vision, by 
the use of similar phraseology, "Also T, in the first 
year of Darius the Mede," in which there seems to 
be no room for doubt that he refers to the vision 
related in the ninth chapter, and not to that which 
he was about to record. The greater importance 
of these seemingly frivolous changes in the receiv- 
ed chronology, will appear in subsequent chapters. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ADDITION OF 21 TO THE 24OO YEARS. 

IN the tenth chapter of Daniel we have the 
record of a vision, the significance of which 
seems to have been strangely overlooked by com- 
mentators, and sometimes as strangely misunder- 
stood ; for while, in all the preceding visions, they 
have interpreted prophetical days to mean natural 
years, here, in a continuation of the same proph- 
ecy, they almost, if not entirely, without exception, 
have given that time its natural and not pro- 
phetical meaning; and thus confining the whole 
purport of one of these grand visions of Daniel to 
the insignificant space of three natural weeks, and 
in which trifling space of time some unknown 
barbarian is the chief actor. 

As we before proved, Daniel commences this 
chapter with a reference to the former vision, and 
adds, " The thing was true, but the time was long." 
3 (49) 



5Q THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

Now, either or all these propositions, taken sepa- 
rately and independently, mean nothing. 

First, He affirms that a " thing " was revealed to 
him in the third year of Cyrus. This adds nothing 
to what had appeared before. 

Second, He affirms that " the thing," or, better, 
" prophecy was true." As an abstract proposition 
this would seem quite unnecessary ; for if any one 
doubted his former record, this new asseveration 
would scarce remove the doubt. And, 

Third, "The time appointed was long." It 
would certainly need no prophet to convince the 
most skeptical that 2300 or 2400 years was a long 
time, and such a gratuitous affirmation of it would 
be deemed quite absurd. 

This statement in the first verse is evidently an 
introduction to what he is about to relate, and is 
thus presented, that this vision may be the better 
understood. He first states that he had a revela- 
tion in the third year of Cyrus, of which he had 
made a record. He then affirms that this former 
revelation was true, in all essential particulars ; but 
he had probably learned that in some non-essen- 
tials, or in its full import, it might be misappre- 
hended. He then follows up this statement with 
the further and important part of the preface, 
namely, " But the time appointed was long," thus 



ADDITION OF 21 TO THE 2,400 TEARS. 51 

showing very clearly that whatever of his former 
revelation might seem incorrect, or liable to mis- 
conception, related to time. It would seem that 
the whole passage would be rendered perfectly 
intelligible, if the last word could, consistently 
with the idiom of the Hebrew language, be ren- 
dered in the comparative degree, so as to read, 
" The revelation was true, but the time was longer" 
Not, however, being acquainted with the Hebrew, 
and knowing no authority for such a change, we 
adopt the English reading as it is, simply implying 
that whatever correction is to be made, relates to 
time. 

" In those days I Daniel was mourning three 
full weeks." It is not necessary, for any purpose 
connected with our theory, to affirm that he 
mourned full twenty-one years, because he is not 
now prophecying, but merely relating a current 
event ; and yet it would seem to imply some incon- 
sistency in him to use the same terms with a 
different meaning, even in the recital of a fact. 
The only significance belonging to it, however, 
arises out of the circumstance, that the time pre- 
cisely coincides with that of the subsequent proph- 
ecy, as will appear. 

In the prophetical portion of this chapter there 
is but one revelation of the slightest importance 



52 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



communicated ; and singularly enough that revela- 
tion appears to have been passed over with little 
reflection, and with no apparent effort to give it 
any significance, or to reconcile ajiy supposed dis- 
crepancy in the former vision. Now, bearing in 
mind our view of the intent of the prefatory verse 
of the chapter, let us try to fathom the purport of 
this hitherto obscure passage. Daniel saw a man 
clothed in linen, who spoke encouragingly to him : 
" Then said he unto me, Fear not Daniel ; for from 
the first day that thou didst set thine heart to 
understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, 
thy words were heard, and I am come for thy 
words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia, 
withstood me one and twenty days." For some rea- 
son, which it is not necessary for us to know, or 
wise to inquire into, the vision related in the 
eighth chapter only reached to the first great blow 
aimed at the Romish Hierarchy, although in the 
seventh chapter he had very explicitly stated 
that "they shall take away his dominion to con- 
sume and to destroy it unto the end. ,, This phrase, 
" consume unto the end," necessarily implies a 
slow process of waste or decomposition. To waste 
slowly is a just meaning of consume. In this sense 
it is used in other places in the Scriptures. Job 
says, " My flesh is consumed &w&y " So Zechariah : 



- 



ADDITION OF 21 TO THE 2,400 YEARS. 53 

" Their flesh, their eyes, their tongue, shall consume 
away;" and in the Psalms, "The wicked shall 
perish, they shall consume." In these, and other 
instances, it is obvious that "consume" does not 
imply instantaneous destruction, but protracted 
dissolution. Now, the revelation in this tenth 
chapter was designed to inform. Daniel that the 
first blow which would be struck in 2400 years, 
would not be fatal, but only a prelude to the final 
catastrophe, as it must "consume and destroy 
unto the end ;" that through the interposition of a 
foreign power, after this first blow, the power of 
antichrist would be partially restored ; and thus to 
advise him that the facts of coming history, as dis- 
closed to him in the prophecy, would be all true in 
their fulfillment; yet that the time required for the 
entire destruction of the power of antichrist would 
be longer, by twenty-one years, than that before 
mentioned; during which it would consume and 
be destroyed. Now, compare this prophecy as 
presented, with the actual state of things in Rome, 
as exhibited in the fourth chapter of this argu- 
ment. Near the close of 1846, or beginning of 
1847, exactly 2400 years from the date of Daniel's 
prophecy in the eighth chapter, a rebellion broke 
out in the states of the church, in consequence of 
which, the Pope abdicated and fled beyond the 



54 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

frontier of his own dominions. By the favor of a 
foreign prince he, a fugitive, found an asylum at 
Gaeta; and from that time to this (1867) he has 
had no existence, as sovereign pontiff, but such as 
he has derived from the intervention of France. 
The decree for the destruction of antichrist had 
gone forth, but precisely in accordance with the 
prophetic announcement, the utter and final ex- 
tinction of his antichristian power was postponed 
one-and-twenty years, during which he and his 
power were to consume and be destroyed. 

Let us now recapitulate. The saints were de- 
livered into the hands of the papal antichrist, in 
the year 607, by the decree of Phocas They are 
to remain subject to his power, " a time, times, and 
the dividing of time," 1260 years, or until the year 
1867. The " wonderful numberer," in reply to a 
complex question, answers only to that part of it 
relating to the continuance of the antichristian 
power ; that it should continue until the expiration 
of 2400 years, which would end, beginning as we 
have before shown it ought to begin, at the year 
554 before Christ, in the year 1846 of the Christian 
era ; and now in the tenth chapter, Daniel is again 
informed that the perfect accomplishment of this 
vision will be " withstood " by the king of Persia, 
(that is, by France, as we shall show,) for a period 



ADDITION OF 21 TO THE 2,400 YEABS. 55 

of twenty-one years; which being added to the 
former term of 2400, brings us down to the year 
1867; and thus these two predictions are made 
with sufficient exactness to synchronize, which all 
commentators agree should be the case. 



It 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE SYMBOL OF THE RAM WITH HORNS. 

WE now approach the scrutiny of that prob- 
lem, which appears to be the most inex- 
plicable of the whole prophecy, namely, that the 
power interposing in behalf of the Pope, was right- 
fully France, and not Persia, as would seem prima- 
facie from the text of Daniel to have been neces- 
sary. Upon this point we give our view of the 
case ; and so leave each one to judge whether it 
be worthy of further consideration. 

We are too much prone, in construing prophecy, 
to take the literal meaning, rather than seek the 
truth which is often veiled under symbolical ex- 
pressions. As an instance, let us quote that one 
which is relied upon more confidently as a literal 
fulfillment, than any other, Alexander, namely, 
as the rough goat in the eighth chapter; and 
Media and Persia, as the ram. We object to this 
first, for the reason, that if it be so, Daniel's vision 
(56) 



THE SYMBOL OF THE BAM WITH HORNS. 57 

is history and not prophecy; the history being a 
little antedated. Second, we cannot discover the 
exact parallelism between the prophecy and the 
supposed fulfillment, in the case of Alexander. 
Third, it leaves a chasm between the ram and the 
fifth horn of the goat of near a thousand years ; 
while it seems quite certain that they should be 
nearly, or quite cotemporaneous. And fourth, it 
is hardly consistent with the scope of the proph- 
ecy, that so much should be devoted to matters 
involving only the secular interests of nations of 
barbarians. 

In the time of Daniel, Persia was, relatively, a 
powerful kingdom, and so continued for more than 
two hundred years ; but from the year 330 B. c, or 
thereabouts, until the present time, with the excep- 
tion of a short but most important period, of Avhich 
more will be said hereafter, it has been perfectly 
insignificant, and for many years hardly known in 
its influence upon the Christian world. If, then, 
the view taken in this argument of the 2400 years 
be correct, and that it could not expire, with the 
twenty-one years added, until the present time, it 
seems incredible that Persia should be literally 
intended in the paragraph under discussion. And 
it should be also borne in mind that Daniel is here 
prophesying and not relating history. It must be 

3* 



58 THE TIME 8 OF DANIEL. 

presumed, therefore, that he employs prophetic 
language, which though sometimes used in its lit- 
eral sense, is most commonly couched in terms not 
so easily comprehended. It is often, if not always, 
the design so to express the meaning that it will 
prove true, but not immediately be understood. 
And again, so dark and inexplicable have seemed 
these references to the prince of the kingdom of 
Persia, that respectable commentators have ad- 
vanced a great deal about tutelary and guardian 
angels presiding over different countries ; as if they 
strove, one against the other, each for his favorite 
state ; which must be deemed very inconsistent 
with the principles of Christianity, and indeed more 
befitting a system of Paganism ; and merely shows 
to what shifts good men are sometimes driven to 
evade an acknowledged difficulty. 

The explication herein given may appear quite 
as absurd, especially as in a most essential point it 
directly contravenes the theory heretofore gener- 
ally adopted by expositors. 

We learn from those competent to instruct, that 
the original name of " Persia,'* and which compre- 
hended all Media, is derived from the same root, 
in the Hebrew, as the word "ram ;" and that the 
difference between them is very minute. In refer- 
ence to the peculiar genius of the Hebrew Ian- 



THE SYMBOL OF THE BAM WITH HOBNS. 59 

guage, we quote from Parkhurst's Preface to the 
Hebrew Lexicon : " It will be demonstratively evi- 
dent to any one, who will attentively examine the 
subject, that the Hebrew language is 'ideal/ or 
that from a certain and that no great number of 
primitive and apparently arbitrary words, called 
roots y and usually expressive of some idea or notion 
taken from nature, that is, from the external objects 
around us, or from our own constitution by our 
senses or feelings, all the other words of that 
tongue are derived or grammatically formed ; and 
that wherever the radical letters are the same y the 
leading idea or notion runs through all the deflections 
of the word, however numerous or diversified'' 

The whole country then known as that of the 
Elamites, or Persia, bore a name in Hebrew almost 
identically the same with " ram." Mr. Meade, in 
his third book, conjectures that the Hebrew word 
for "ram," and that for " Persia," both springing 
from the same root, and both implying somewhat 
of strength, the one is not improperly made the type 
of the other. His use of that fact, however, differs 
much from ours. We assume, then, that in this and 
other instances, the prophet used the term " Per- 
sia" typically, and in such a manner as to express 
the true meaning on his part; at the same time 
preserving the mystic sense so common and neces- 



60 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

sary in all the prophecies. Hence is drawn the 
conclusion, that " the ram with horns" was not lit- 
erally the kingdom of Media and Persia, but in fact 
the Roman Hierarchy. And if the explanation had 
not been given in the latter part of the chapter 
(ambiguous as it seems to be), few would have en- 
tertained a doubt of this application. And here we 
observe that the " ram" is not usually represented 
as having two horns. By reference to our English 
version, it will appear that before the seventh verse, 
wherever " two" is used, no such word is found in 
the original, nor is it found in the Septuagint. In 
the third verse one horn is represented higher than 
"the other," which might with equal propriety be 
rendered " than another ;" and in the seventh verse, 
where we are informed that the goat broke his 
horns, it is not as translated, " two horns," but 
"both horns." It would seem, therefore, that am- 
biguity was purposely adopted. In one, and the 
most obvious aspect, the Hierachy had two, and 
but two, horns. But in another aspect, certainly 
not less important, he had more than two, varying 
in number, from time to time, so that it would be 
impossible to fix upon any number, at any one time, 
as applicable to the whole period. His " two" horns 
were his temporal power on the one side, and his 
ecclesiastical despotism on the other. The ecclesi- 



THE SYMBOL OF THE RAM WITH HORNS. 6l 

astical was certainly higher than the secular ; and 
in the most obvious sense, these were represented 
as two horns. On the other hand, when the power 
of the transgressors had come to the full, the Hier- 
archy stretched its ecclesiastical domination over 
all the countries of Europe, and wherever the Ro- 
man Catholic religion prevailed. During a large 
portion of this 1260 years, there was no single sec- 
ular despotism in Europe so absolute within its 
own dominions as the Pope over them all. In this 
view of the case, every kingdom thus situated was 
most emphatically a horn of the Hierarchy. And 
so while it was perfectly correct to describe it as 
having two horns in the one case, it was equally 
correct to describe it as the ram with horns ; that 
is, an indefinite number of horns, in the other case. 

It will appear, by and by, in treating of the 
downfall of Mahometanism, how exceedingly ap- 
propriate is the he-goat, as an emblem of that pow- 
er. Scarcely less appropriate is the selection of 
the " ram," as a type of the Roman pontiff, or rath- 
er of Romanism as an ecclesiastical system. 

In speaking of his followers, Christ describes 
them as his "fold" his "sheep ;" and of those who 
are not, as "goats." The term sheep, then, in an 
enlarged sense, would comprise all nominally 
Christian countries; while "goats" would com- 



62 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

prehend all others. But while sheep are distin- 
guished by their quiet and peaceful habits, there 
is no more choleric and bellicose animal than the 
" ram ;" and from all these premises, we conclude 
that the ram described in the first part of chapter 
eight refers to the Roman hierarchy, and that 
the word " Persia," is used typically for the " ram," 
in the passage now under consideration ; namely, 
the thirteenth verse of the tenth chapter. 

It will be observed that the power that " with- 
stood " the angel, is not the " king of Persia," but 
" the prince of the kingdom of the Persians," Arch- 
on basileias Person. The proper meaning of arch- 
on is chief, or principal. Let us apply this to the 
case in hand. The angel was sent to destroy anti- 
christ, the Roman hierarchy. But " the chief of 
the kingdom of the ram " " withstood " him twen- 
ty-one years. The question now arises, who was 
the chief of the kingdom of the ram ? or the prin- 
cipal horn of the ecclesiastical power of the Ro- 
man hierarchy? Beyond all controversy, twenty 
years ago, and until now, France was the " chief" 
of this kingdom. France then was truly the 
"prince of the kingdom of the ram," which, ac- 
cording to the prophecy, should " withstand " the 
angel twenty-one years ; and this is precisely the 
time that France has withstood the will of the Ro- 



THE SYMBOL OF THE BAM WITH HOBNS. 63 

man people, and, we may add, the desire of almost 
all Christendom, to consume and destroy the power 
of the Hierarchy. We may then conclude from this 
analysis and comparison of all these premises, pro- 
phetical and secular, that the 1,260 years, for which 
the saints were delivered into the power of anti- 
christ, will end in the present year 1867. 



NOTE TO CHAPTER VIII. 

To any one who shall peruse this treatise, it 
will be obvious that the whole argument is hinged 
upon the existence of a single fact ; namely, that 
the saints were delivered into the hands of the 
little horn — that is, the Roman church — for a time, 
times and the dividing of time (Dan. vii. 28), in the 
year 607, and that that period expired in 1867. 
And the writer freely admits that if this proposi- 
tion is not substantially true, his whole argument 
falls to the ground. 

Much the largest portion of it was written be- 
fore 1867 ; and the whole was completed, in almost 
precisely its present form (excepting the 10th chap- 
ter), before the end of the month of February of 
that year. 

Imperative circumstances have postponed its 



64 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

publication until now ; and the question becomes 
all-important, Has the event anticipated, and upon 
which the whole value of the argument depends, 
been accomplished ? That is to say, did the period 
of 1260 years end in 1867, or, substantially, as it 
was supposed it would ? 

That an extended duration, affecting millions of 
persons, scattered over half the globe, should com- 
mence and be perfected in all its fullness, among 
all these millions, in a single day or a single year ; 
or that the power of antichrist should subject them 
all to his dominion in a single year, seems not only 
improbable but impossible. The subjection of the 
whole Christian world to one controlling and per- 
secuting power, must be a work of time ; and we 
may well assume, if it were yet to occur, that it 
would proceed from small beginnings, and so by 
constant and persevering encroachments, finally 
attain its zenith of despotic dominion ; and then, af- 
ter an interval, gradually decline and finally perish. 

From the introduction of Christianity, for about 
400 years, pagan persecution was endured almost 
universally. After that there was a period of com- 
parative peace and quietness. It was at this time 
that the Bishop of Rome began to claim superior- 
ity over other prelates. But it was by slow degrees 
that his pretensions secured obedience. 



THE SYMBOL OF THE BAM WITH HOBNS. 65 

The fact that the Bishops of Rome, Antioch and 
Alexandria, presided over primitive and apostolic 
churches, gave to them a kind of pre-eminence 
over others, even as early as the fourth century. 
" About the close of that century, the Bishop of 
Rome surpassed all his brethren in the magnifi- 
cence and splendor of the church over which he 
presided ; in the riches of his revenue and posses- 
sions ; in the number and variety of his ministers ; 
in his credit with the people, and in his sumptu- 
ous and splendid manner of living." 

" In the fifth century a variety of circumstances 
united in augmenting the power and authority of 
the Bishop of Rome ; though he had not as yet 
assumed or claimed the dignity of supreme law- 
giver and judge of the whole Christian church." 

" Although the Roman Pontiffs artfully availed 
themselves of every circumstance that could con- 
tribute to their obtaining universal dominion, yet 
it is certain that towards the close of the sixth 
century the emperors, and the nations in general, 
were far from being willing to bear with patience 
the yoke of servitude which the See of Rome was 
arrogantly imposing upon the Christian church." 

Now, assuming the Roman Pontiff to be the 
power into whose hands the saints were to be de- 
livered, it will appear very certain from the ex- 



66 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



tracts above given, that that consummation had 
not yet arrived ; although he had made great 
strides towards attaining the desired end. For 
two hundred years the successive occupants of 
the See of Rome had constantly been making en- 
croachments upon the liberty of the Christian 
church ; and — as the " little horn " — had undoubt- 
edly secured a very large despotic power ; but it is 
quite evident that something more was necessary 
to make the " delivery " of the saints into the power 
of the hierarchy complete. 

It was in this condition of affairs, that in 607 
Phocas constituted Boniface III. universal Bishop, 
thus investing him with a new, abnormal, temporal 
authority ; and this was the commencement of the 
absolute Papal supremacy — the 1260 years, as has 
been shown in Chapter IV. of this treatise. 

At this point we step aside from the general 
scope of our argument, to note what appears like 
a discrepancy in the view of some who have com- 
mented upon Daniel and St. John. 

It is generally admitted that the power of the 
Roman church is symbolized in Daniel by the " lit- 
tle horn • ■ rising up among the ten. It is also 
held that the same church is symbolized in the 
Revelation of St. John, by " another beast coming 
up out of the earth, having two horns like a lamb." 



THE SYMBOL OF THE BAM WITH HOBNS. 67 

Is not the apparent discrepancy reconciled in 
this manner ? 

The power and influence of the Bishop of 
Rome had been gradually and constantly grow- 
ing in Italy, during two hundred years, until it 
had become altogether the most potent ecclesias- 
tical dominion on earth, overriding some of the 
secular governments of Italy. It might, then, with 
great propriety, be described as a " little horn/' 

In 607, Phocas, by his decree, constituted this 
same Bishop of Rome supreme head of the church, 
not in Italy only, but over all the Christian world. 
It will be observed that this dignity so conferred, 
while it left the Bishop of Rome in possession of 
all his usurped authority — by the change in the 
character of his jurisdiction, and by investing him 
with a vast quasi temporal power — effected an en- 
tire revolution in the nature and condition of his 
government. While he was before only Bishop of 
Rome, he is now Supreme and Universal Pontiff. 
From this time the simple symbol of a " little 
horn/' would not fairly represent the Bishop in 
his double sovereign capacity ; but " the beast 
coming up out of the earth having horns like a 
lamb/' would most admirably symbolize the same 
Bishop invested with his new power and pontifical 
robes, just emerging into supreme sovereignty. 



68 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



Before, he only exercised the dominion usurped 
by an ambitious prelate ; now, he reigns clothed 
with (what would in those times have been con- 
sidered) the legitimate authority of a temporal as 
well as spiritual potentate. 

From this time the power of that government, 
ecclesiastical and temporal, continued to increase, 
until it had grasped and absorbed nearly the en- 
tire sovereignty in all the nations of the civilized 
world. For centuries every potentate in Europe 
trembled at the rebuke of the Pope, and his " emis- 
aries and abettors in the persons of priests, monks, 
and Jesuits were spread over all the world as frogs 
were in the houses, the bed-chambers, the ovens 
and the kneading-troughs of the Egyptians." In 
fact, there was no sovereign in Europe who could 
wield half the power in his own dominions, as the 
heirarchy over them all : and during all this long, 
dark period, no one dared to utter a sentiment not 
in accordance with the teachings of Rome ; and 
no one could do it without subjecting himself to 
all the pains and penalties which a cruel and re- 
lentless despotism could inflict. Ignorance, super- 
stition, credulity and persecution, for ages pre- 
served this empire over the consciences, the per- 
sons, the property, and the liberties of mankind. 

It is now near 400 years since this stupendous 



THE SYMBOL OF THE BAM WITH HOBNS. 69 

fabric of power on the one side, and delusion on 
the other, began to crumble and fall away, but no 
era has marked its utter overthrow until the pre- 
sent time. 

Before the year 1867 nearly all Europe had be- 
come emancipated from the thraldom of Rome, 
except Spain and Austria ; and now the one, by 
voluntary action, and the other, by a violent revo- 
lution, have shaken themselves free from the yoke of 
bondage, it may be presumed forever, leaving really 
no more power in the hierarchy than the Bishop 
of Rome possessed before the decree of Phocas. 

The period of 1260 years seems to have closed 
up in a most signal and remarkable manner, so as 
to leave no shred of doubt that this is truly the 
period referred to by the prophet. 

The whole sum of 1260 years has been divided 
into three portions of almost equal length. From 
the date of the decree of Phocas, it was 400 years, 
or very near that, before the heriarchy became, by 
""gradual usurpations, almost omnipotent over the 
conscience and person. For the 400 or 500 suc- 
ceeding years, that power was supreme over all 
the Christian world, and now for 400 years it has 
been, as gradually as it arose, crumbling away, until 
at the very date anticipated, the last hold of perse- 
cution has surrendered. 



70 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

The bull of the Pope calling an (Ecumenical 
Council to be held in 1869, is itself abundant proof 
of the utter subversion of the persecuting power 
(however the will may remain) of the Hierarchy. 

At the time the preceding chapter was written, 
it was supposed the 1260 years would have closed 
up with the end of the year 1867, while the final 
consummation did not occur until some months 
later. 

In relation to this apparent discrepancy, it may 
be remarked that had no correction of the common 
chronology been made, but that of our Bibles been 
adopted, the 2421 years would have ended with 
the year 1868. And, while the decree of Phocas 
was granted in 607, Boniface himself, being in a 
feeble condition, died before the close of that year ; 
so that, in fact, the execution of the decree could 
not have been begun before 608 : and, indeed, his 
successor was not appointed until that year. 

But putting aside this explanation, it is a suffi- 
cient answer, that in periods of time so long as 
2421, and 1260 years, the variation of half or two- 
thirds of a year is remarkable only for its so exact 
correspondence with the anticipated event. Here, 
with more than its usual force, may we quote the 
maxim of law, " De minimis non curat lex" 



THE SYMBOL OF THE BAM WITH H0BN8. 71 



POSTSCRIPT, JANUARY, 1871. 

Since the above note was written, new and ex- 
traordinary developments have appeared, which 
seem to require a further notice. 

According to my argument, the 2,421 years 
closed up in 1868, as the only nations which had 
continued to submit to the papal authority then 
freed themselves from the yoke of ecclesiastical 
despotism. The Roman Pontiff thus divested of 
his supremacy, retained in Rome no more or larger 
power than, as the " little horn," he possessed be- 
fore the decree of Phocas, thus fulfilling the terms 
of the prophecy. 

During the year 1870, two events have occured 
calculated to deeply enlist the public interest — the 
one, the withdrawal of the French troops from 
Rome ; the other, the occupation of Rome by the 
Italian government. As the last was a necessary 
result of the preceding occurrences, it needs no 
comment. But that the French army remained 
within the walls of Rome, avowedly to protect the 
Pope from overthrow, precisely twenty-one years, 
is certainly a fact worthy of notice, when taken in 
connection with my argument written more than 
three years before the close of that term. But it 



72 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

is also noticeable that the twenty-one years of the 
possession of Rome by the French army, was not 
coeval with the twenty-one years added in my 
argument to the 2400, as it commenced and ended 
two years later, or a little more. Whether this is 
a true variation, and the prophecy was intended to 
meet both contingencies, or whether the discrep- 
ancy may be removed by further study, is not cer- 
tain. But when we consider the difficulties of an- 
cient chronology, we may well presume that so 
small a disagreement will ultimately be cleared up 
and disappear. And even now, so far as the 2421 
years are concerned, the whole variation would 
vanish by adopting the chronology of Calmet, who 
fixes the beginning of Belshazzar's reign at 555 
B.C., and that of Cyrus at 554, or a little earlier. 
Adopting this as our starting point, and the 2421 
years would end in 1870. 

As yet, however, I am not prepared to change 
my former position in this respect. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE SYMBOL OF THE HE-GOAT. 

BUT it is quite apparent, as has been before 
remarked, that the question put by the saint 
comprises much more than was answered by 
"Palmoni," "the wonderful numberer." Let us 
put the questions into their proper form : 

" How long shall be the vision, 

First,. Concerning the daily sacrifice, and 

Second, Concerning the transgression of desola- 
tion, 

to give both, 

First, The sanctuary, and 
Second, The host, 

to be trodden under foot?" 

The answer is intended, most clearly, to meet but 
one of these inquiries, " Unto two thousand and 

4 (73) 



74 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

four hundred (days) years. Then shall the sanctuary 
be cleansed." If my former exposition be correct, 
this answer refers only and exclusively to anti- 
christian Rome. 

We are now prepared to pursue our investiga- 
tions to elucidate the other part of this doubly 
duplicated question. "How long shall be the vision 
concerning the transgression of desolation, to give 
the host to be trodden under foot f Having disposed 
of the " ram," we now proceed to investigate the 
typical meaning of the " he-goat." 

We may assume, and it is so affirmed in the 
eighth chapter, that the time of this he-goat was 
cotemporaneous with the commencement of the 
power of the "ram." In the year of our Lord 
590, Chosroes II. ascended the throne of Persia. 
He became a very powerful sovereign and unscru- 
pulous in all his movements. He carried his arms 
into Judea, Libya and Egypt. He was equally suc- 
cessful in his wars against the Roman Emperors. 
In A. D. 611, his army conquered nearly all Greece. 
He laid all Palestine waste, took the city of Jeru- 
salem ; and " here the Persians committed such 
outrageous acts, as the horror of them is not to be 
expressed. They sold 90,000 Christians to the 
Jews, who did not buy them with an intent to use 
them as the universal consent of nations requires 



THE SYMBOL OF THE HE-GOAT. 75 

captives should be used, but, inventing unheard of 
torments, put them to cruel death/' and " not con- 
tent with their devastations in Asia, they rolled on 
like an irresistible stream, and overwhelmed Egypt, 
pillaging Alexandria. " His army carried their 
conquest to the very gates of Constantinople, plun- 
dering, murdering, and committing every species 
of violence upon the unhappy inhabitants until 
nothing but the Bosphorus saved that city from ruin. 
" These violent irruptions of the Persians, in which 
they scattered destruction all around, roused up the 
Emperor, and made him think of some method to 
obstruct or prevent them. He once more sent his 
embassadors to Chosroes who, in most earnest 
terms, represented to him how highly he was en- 
gaged to the empire, and entreated him to accept of 
a peace, upon whatever conditions he should think fit 
himself. But the barbarian grew more insolent, 
from his submission, and affronted not only the em- 
peror and empire, but blasphemed God himself, for 
he arrogantly replied that he would give ear to no terms 
of accommodation, till he{Heraclius and his people) had 
solemnly renaunced their crucified Savior, and public- 
ly adored the sun, the great god of the Persians!' This 
was in the year 618. From this time the destinies 
of war changed ; and although Chosroes raised 
many armies, which fought many battles and made 



?6 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

some conquests, yet the Emperor Heraclius was 
most commonly successful, until, finally, he drove 
Chosroes a fugitive from his palace, which was 
pillaged and burnt by the Roman soldiers ; and 
now his eldest son seized the sovereignty, stopped 
Chosroes in his flight, caused eighteen of his sons 
to be massacred before his face, threw him into a 
dungeon, where every indignity was heaped upon 
him which malice could devise ; and, after five days, 
death put an end to his sufferings, which happened 
in the year of our Lord 628 : and very soon the 
Persian Empire was broken up, and afterwards sub- 
jected to the Arabian Caliphs. 

This history of Chosroes is but an enlarged ac- 
count of the he-goat : " And as I was considering, 
behold a he-goat came from the west, on the face 
of the whole earth, and touched not the ground ; 
and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes ; 
and he came to the ram that had horns, which I 
had seen standing before the river, and ran unto 
him in the fury of his power, and I saw him come 
close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler 
against him, and smote the ram, and broke his two 
horns, and there was no power in the ram to stand 
before him, but he cast him down to the ground, 
and stamped upon him, and there was none that could 
deliver the ram out of his hand. Therefore the 



THE SYMBOL OF THE HE- GOAT. 77 

he-goat waxed very great ; and when he was strong 
the great horn was broken, and for it came up four 
notable ones, towards the four winds of heaven." 
There does seem here to be an inconsistency. The 
he-goat is said to come from the west ; while, in 
respect to the Christian portion of the world, 
Chosroes came from the east. The word here trans- 
lated " west," is in the Septuagint Libos, preceded 
by the preposition "apo" usually translated "from." 
Nevertheless it sometimes means "against," or 
" athwart," either of which would remove all diffi- 
culty. 

The Greek word " Lips," " Libos," is both a 
common noun, and a proper name. In this place 
we shall examine it only as a common noun. 

As such, it may undoubtedly, be correctly trans- 
lated " south-west " as a point of the compass ; it is 
so translated in the twelfth verse of the twenty- 
seventh chapter of the Acts. 

The word " Lips " with combinations represents 
every point of the compass between the south and 
the west ; but neither the south nor west. It may 
be here remarked that Alexander did not go from 
the west towards Persia, but from the north-west, 
and if you give " Lips " its true meaning, the point 
would be nearly at right angles to the route from 
Macedonia to Persia. 



78 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

Another meaning of " Lips " as a common noun 
is, Latin, Petra ; English, "a place full of rocks or 
stones." 

How truly this would represent Persia may be 
seen by a quotation from a modern geography. 
" The distinguishing features of this country are 
a deficiency of rivers, and a multitude of mountains ; 
its plains, where they occur, are generally desert." 
" The mountains of this country, which are for the 
most part rocky, without wood or plants, are in- 
terspersed with valleys, some of which are stony 
and sandy." Another writer says, " The most re- 
markable features of Persia are its chains of rocky 
mountains ; its long, arid, riveriess valleys, and the 
still more extensive salt or sandy deserts. There is a 
magnificent range, which, striking off from the 
Caucasus, accompanies the course of the Georgian 
river Kour, crosses it to the west of the plains of 
Mogan, covers Karabaug and Karadaug with a 
gloomy assemblage of black peaks. These are the 
principal stocks, from whence arise the multitude of 
ramifications, that cover the surface of Persia with 
a net-work, as it were, of rocky lines," Another 
says, " It (Persia) has been termed a country of moun- 
tains ; and a large portion of it is certainly mountain- 
ous." " The aspect of the Persian mountains is pecu- 
liarly bare and forbidding, rising abruptly from 



THE SYMBOL OF THE HE- GOAT. 79 

the plain, and presenting nothing to the eye but 
large masses of gray rocks, piled upon each other." 

Chardin says, speaking of the desert of Car- 
mania: "At some distance from the coast the 
ground rises, and the interior of the country, to- 
wards the north, is intersected by numerous moun- 
tain ranges. The soil upon these mountains is very 
dry and barren ; and though there are some fertile 
valleys among them, they are generally fit only for 
the residence of nomadic shepherds. This part of 
Persia was the original seat of the conquerors of Asia, 
where they were inured to hardship and privation." 

There is, perhaps, no other country in the world, 
so large in extent, which so exactly answers to " a 
country full of rocks." 

This he-goat, we are informed, is the " king of 
Grecia." From this passage all writers, for twenty 
centuries, have jumped to the conclusion that 
Alexander, namely, was symbolized by " the he- 
goat" assuming that he was " king of Grecia." 
To this we demur ; for Alexander was no more 
king of Grecia than Chosroes — nay, he had not so 
good a claim to the title. Alexander was king of 
Macedonia ; and whatever may be the modern di- 
visions, in early times Macedonia was not Greece 
nor a part of Greece. So late as the time of the 
apostles, we are told " Paul called unto him the 



80 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to 
go into Macedonia. And when he had gone over 
those parts, and had given them much exhortation, 
he came into Greece." Thus clearly showing that, 
at that time, Macedonia and Greece were recog- 
nized as distinct countries. And more than this, 
Alexander himself never even claimed to be the king 
of Greece. Rollin says : " He (Alexander) summon- 
ed at Corinth the assembly of the several states 
and free cities of Greece, to obtain from them the 
same supreme command against the Persians as 
had been granted his father, a little before his 
death. The deliberations of the assembly were 
very short ; and that prince was unanimously ap- 
pointed generalissimo against the Persians." 

To a superficial observer, this explanation of the 
he-goat, namely, that he was king of Grecia, given 
by the angel, would seem to set at rest the claim 
that Chosroes was identical with the he-goat. But 
when we consider that, for a long time, Chosroes' 
empire comprised nearly all Greece proper, al- 
though a Persian prince, it does not seem so 
strange that he should be called " king of Grecia" 
And then when we remember that this word 
Grecia, in scripture, often comprehends all the 
countries inhabited by the descendants of Javan, 
and, further, that " after the time of Alexander the 






THE SYMBOL OF THE HE- GOAT. 8 1 

Great, when the Greeks became masters of Egypt, 
Syria and the countries beyond the Euphrates, the 
Jews included all gentiles under the name of 
Greeks," it would appear to have been unexcep- 
tionably appropriate to speak of Chosroes as the 
" king of Grecia;" far more so than Alexander. 

Assuming the he-goat to be emblematical of 
Chosroes, and the " little horn which waxed ex- 
ceeding great n his Mahometan successors, the 
type appears to have been selected with unequal- 
led propriety. The words translated " he-goat," 
are " o tragos aigon /" a he-goat not only, but, liter- 
ally, " a he-goat of the she-goats." In the king- 
dom of Persia, in the time of Chosroes, polygamy 
prevailed, he himself having a seraglio of numer- 
ous wives ; and the same custom, under the sway 
of Mahometanism, prevails until the present time. 
The he-goat is often used, even till this day, as an 
emblem of all that is lascivious and wanton ; and 
when described, as in this phrase, as "a he-goat of 
the she-goats," it would seem impossible to avoid 
the conclusion that its reference is to Chosroes and 
his Turkish and Mahometan successors, with their 
polygamous harems. 



4* 



CHAPTER X. 

SOMEWHAT MORE OF THE RAM AND HE-GOAT. 

AS this question — Who were symbolized by 
the he-goat with one horn ; and the ram 
with horns? — is one of the fundamental problems of 
the prophecy of Daniel ; and as, for thousands of 
years, no one seems to have entertained a doubt 
that Alexander was the he-goat and Persia the 
ram, it will doubtless be deemed by all a bold, 
and by many an irreverent, assault upon fixed facts 
of prophecy and history to aim at any change in 
the world-wide belief so long and so firmly held. 
But is it not possible that one grand error in this 
crucial point has heretofore obscured the prophecy 
of Daniel, with that impenetrable vail which all 
students have been anxious to remove, and which 
has been the cause of so many disappointments ? 

What appeared applicable, in the course of the 
argument, has been already written. Something 
further may tend to strengthen our hypothesis. 
(82) 



MORE OF THE RAM AND HE- GOAT. 83 

The Greek word " Lips" is both a common noun 
and a proper name. Its meaning as a common 
noun has received sufficient comment in the last 
chapter. We shall now notice it as the proper name 
of some wind. We have a variety of such names, 
as "sirocco," "simoom," and others. The name of 
a wind necessarily implies that the wind so named 
has a distinct identity, and usually blows in a cer- 
tain direction for a fixed and somewhat lengthened 
period, as three months, or six months, though 
some receive their names only because of some dis- 
agreeable or positive quality. The question here 
for us to solve is the location of the wind, desig- 
nated in the Greek by the name " Lips," " Libos." 

The word " Libonotos" was the name of a wind 
blowing east of Africa, and south of Asia. This 
could be no other than the southern monsoon. 

In relation to this monsoon, we are told that, " in 
the tract between Sumatra and the African coast, 
and from three degrees south latitude, quite north- 
ward to the Asiatic coast, including the Arabian 
Sea and the Gulf of Bengal, the monsoons blow 
from September to April on the north-east, and 
from March to October on the south-west." " The 
trade winds in some parts are subject to a change 
of direction every six months, and are then called 
monsoons. When the northern hemisphere is ex- 



84 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

posed to the sun's rays, Arabia, Persia, India and 
China being greatly heated, raise the temperature 
of the atmosphere that covers them, and the cooler 
air from the regions south rushes towards the 
parts. It will therefore follow, that for one six 
months the trade wind is, in this instance, produced 
by a current of air rushing from the equatorial re- 
gions/' And another writer says: "It is in the 
Indian seas, however, and especially in the vicinity 
of the great Asiatic continent, that the disturbing 
influence of the land is most clearly exhibited, issu- 
ing in a complete reversal of the north-east trade 
during a considerable portion of the year ; and the 
production of monsoons, that is, of winds which blow 
half the year in one, and the other half in a con- 
trary direction. ,, 

The south-west monsoon commences north of 
the equator, and, driving in a north-east direction 
from the coast of Africa, passes over the south-east 
desert of Arabia, and thence over the southern part 
of Persia. 

To return to " Libonotos." It is composed of 
two Greek words, namely, " Lips," or " Libos," the 
genitive, and " Notos," south. Now, as we know 
that " Lips" is the name of a wind, and, connected 
with Notos, it means the " southern monsoon;" if 
we separate Notos, southern, it leaves only Libos — 



MOBE OF THE BAM AND HE- GOAT, 85 

monsoon. As this southern monsoon originates 
near the coast of Africa, and pervades Southern 
Persia, we can hardly escape the conclusion that 
" Apo Libos" [if a proper name here] should be ren- 
dered " from the region or direction of the mon- 
soons. " And as the monsoon could be reached 
from the Holy Land, and from other countries most 
interested in the prophecy, in no other direction 
by land, than through Persia (except over the des- 
ert of Arabia), it seems a just conclusion that the 
country from which the he-goat must come was 
that very land ruled by Chosroes. 

It is a significant coincidence that " Libos," a 
common noun, describes Persia so perfectly as 
"a country full of rocks/' while " Libos," a proper 
name, seems to point, unmistakably, to the same 
country as the locality of the monsoons. 

One mode of proof, to sustain the position that the 
he-goat symbolized Macedonia, is certainly unique. 
The writer, a firm believer in that position, pre- 
sents his proposition as follows : " The prophet 
Daniel describes Macedonia, under the emblem 
of a goat with one horn ; and it is therefore of great 
consequence, that this symbol should be proved to be 
that proper to Macedonia ; for if this country had 
no such emblem belonging to it, we must look to an- 
other kingdom for a fulfillment of the prophecy, 



86 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

which would be contrary to history, and would 
produce inextricable confusion/' It must strike 
every one, that in this short extract the writer ig- 
nores inductive reasoning and begs the question 
two or three times over. 

The only cases cited to prove that the one-horned 
goat was the symbol of Macedonia, are, 

ist, In the reign of Archelius, of Macedon, 
" there occurs on the reverse of a coin of that 
kingdom the head of a goat having one horn." 

2d 2 " An ancient bronze figure of a goat with one 
horn was dug up in Asia Minor /" 

Now as Asia Minor had often been conquered by 
the Persians, and at one time been in their posses- 
sion for twelve successive years, why should it be 
taken for granted that this bronze figure was Mace- 
donian rather than Persian ? Macedonia was nearer 
to Asia Minor, to be sure, but, under the circum- 
stances, the probabilities that the figure was Per- 
sian, were far greater than that it was Macedonian. 

3d. Another fact is mentioned as of very great 
significance : " In one of the Pilasters of Persepolis, 
a goat is represented with an immense horn grow;- 
ing out of the middle of the forehead ; and a man 
in Persian dress, is seen by his side, holding the 
horn with his left hand ; by which is signified the sub- 
jection of Macedon." Every one must see that here 



MOBE OF THE BAM AND HE-GOAT. 87 

the question is begged again. These are the only 
instances given, although it is added that Mr. Combe 
observes that not only many of the individual towns 
in Macedon employed this type, but the kingdom 
itself " was represented also by a goat, with this 
particularity, that it had but one horn." 

On the other hand, we are told that " Persia was 
represented by a ram." Ammianus Marcellinus ac- 
quaints us, that " the king of Persia, when at the 
head of his army, wore a ram's head made of gold." 
And then we are further informed that " the type 
of Persia, the ram, is observable on a very ancient 
coin, undoubtedly Persian, in Dr. Hunter's collec- 
tion." It will be observed that here again the ques- 
tion is begged, and the item of evidence depends 
upon the opinion that the coin was Persian, while, 
prima facie, the great probability is that it was As- 
syrian or Babylonian. 

Mr. Combe further says (after giving a represen- 
tation of a head of a ram and a one-horned goat) : 
" It will be seen by the drawing I have made of 
this gem, that nothing more nor less is meant by 
the ram's head with two horns, and the goat's head 
with one, than the kingdoms of Macedonia and 
Persia represented under their appropriate sym- 
bols." This again begs the question ; but if the 
application be correct, the probability appears just 



88 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

as strong that the one horn represented Persia as 
the contrary. 

The resources of the writer have been very 
limited, indeed, so far as numismatics are concern- 
ed. But his investigations have resulted thus : 
In Rees' Cyclopaedia, under " Medals," we find 
this statement : " It was in the reign of Servius 
Tullius that the first Roman coins appeared, which 
were large pieces of brass, rudely impressed, only 
on one side, with the figure of an ox, a ram, or 
some other animal." This was near 700 years be- 
fore Christ. There is a copper medal, of the reign 
of Britannicus, in Captain Smyth's collection, upon 
the reverse of which is the figure of a ram. This 
was not far from the Christian era. 

In Calmet there is given the copy of a medal 
" in proof that Macedonia was divided into several 
provinces (four, at least,) when under the Roman 
government." This, therefore, was undoubtedly a 
Macedonian medal. This medal has the head of a 
ram "on one side ; and a complete ram, reclining, on 
the reverse. 

Here are three distinct cases where the ram, 
with horns y was used symbolically by the Eastern 
or Western Empires. 

In addition to the above, a significant fact is 
mentioned by Bishop Chandler, who observes that 



MORE OF THE RAM AND HE- GOAT. 89 

" princes and nations being of old painted by their 
symbols, which Procopius calls GN6RISMATA, they 
came afterwards to be distinguished by writers 
with the names of their symbols as by their ap- 
pellations. Yet Alexander derived himself from 
Jupiter Ammon, and he and his successors had two 
rams horns on their coins, the very description of 
the former beast." 

We are further told that " Jupiter Ammon was 
usually represented under the figure of a ram ; 
though, in some medals, he appears of a human 
shape, having only two ram's horns growing out 
beneath his ears." And accordingly Alexander 
and his successors placed the symbol of a ram's 
horns around their ears, which may be seen on 
various coins and medals, which may be fairly set 
off against the story of Ammianus Marcellinus. 

Turning now to Persia, we have given before all 
the proof within our reach of the ram as a Persian 
symbol. The figure of a ram is found among the 
sculptures of Persepolis, but it is placed indis- 
criminately along with lions, deer, bulls, horses 
and camels, with no mark of distinction what- 
ever. 

On the other hand, goats and other animals with 
one horn are found sculptured everywhere. Mr. 
Combe gives the instance before quoted, of " a 



9 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

goat with an immense horn growing out of the 
middle of his forehead." 

" In the general procession which adorns the 
palace of Persepolis, there appears the emblem of 
two goats, each having one horn." This is found 
in other instances, especially upon the pillars 
around the porticoes. 

Among the ornaments of the palace are many 
hundred figures sculptured in basso relievo. 

Le Bruyn gives the following account of some 
of those upon the pilasters : 

" Under a portal of the west is the figure of a 
man hunting a bull, who has one horn in his fore- 
head!' 

" The second portal discovers the figure of a 
man carved in the same manner, with a deer, that 
greatly resembles a lion, having a horn in his fore- 
head." t 

" The same representations are to be seen under 
the portal to the north, with this exception, that, 
instead of the deer, there is a great lion. ,, 

" There are also two other figures on each side 
in the two niches to the south, one of which grasps 
the horn of a goat with one hand." 

"Another of these sculptures also represents a 
man who, with one hand, seizes the (single) horn 
of an animal which he has attacked." 



MORE OF THE RAM AND HE- GOAT. 



91 



Here are a great variety of sculptures represent- 
ing an animal with one horn, of which many are 
goats. Can we draw any other inference from 
these facts than that the one-horned animal was a 
symbol adopted and recognized by Persia ? And we 
are supported in this opinion by the unquestionable 
fact, that Media, then an integral part of Persia, 
was so symbolized. 

The author before quoted says : " This (the two 
goats with one horn each sculptured at Persepolis) 
would be extremely embarrassing if we did not 
know that these two Medias being, as they were, 
in some respects, but one province, though divid- 
ed, so they were represented by two goats walk- 
ing together." He therefore concludes that " Me- 
dia was symbolized by the single-horned goat, and 
that the Macedonians, being derived from thence, 
retained the symbol of their original country" 

Without stopping to comment upon the obvious 
fact that the conclusion is altogether too far-fetch- 
ed to be of any value, we suggest whether, as 
Media and Persia had become consolidated into 
one nation, it would not be far more reasonable to 
assume that the consolidated nation had adopted 
the original and national symbol of one of them. 

The one-horned goat was a frequent symbol with 
the Assyrians, and Layard has the remark, that, at 



92 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

" the period of the fall of the Assyrian empire, and 
of the rise of the kingdoms of Babylon and Persia, 
the arts passed from Assyria to the sister nations/' 

In conclusion, while the writer does not place as 
much confidence as some others in any numismat- 
ical arguments or those drawn from sculptures, 
they nevertheless do appear much more to strength- 
en his view of the case than the other. 

There is a passage which, giving its popular 
meaning, may seem to conflict with our view in an 
important particular. The passage is in the second 
verse of the eleventh chapter, and is as follows : 
" Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in 
Persia ; and the fourth shall be far richer than they 
all : and by his strength through his riches, he 
shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia." 
The fourth king is commonly supposed to refer to 
Xerxes. If you begin with Cyrus, Xerxes was 
the fifth king, and the language seems to imply 
that he is the first ; and, if so, the text does not 
refer to Xerxes. That king has been called " the 
great." In what did his greatness consist? He 
raised an army, if .we may believe the historian, of 
over 2,000,000 of men. But the greatness of this 
army proved his utter unworthiness of the title 
given him. His vast army was successfully re- 
sisted at Thermopylae by 300 Spartans and 1100 






MORE OF THE BAM AND HE- GOAT. 93 

Thespians and Thebans, until betrayed by a villain. 
He burnt the empty houses of Athens, and got 
sadly beaten in the battle of Salamis ; and here 
ends his military history. " In his precipitate re- 
treat he left behind him all his riches and magnifi- 
cence." 

We suggest whether the word king here does 
not really mean dynasty, provided we are to un- 
derstand the language literally. 

Cyrus was king of Persia at the time of Daniel's 
prophecy. Thus, the Archcemenian dynasty ended 
with Darius Codomannus, and was succeeded by 
Alexander and the Seleucian, 324 B. c. In 255 the 
Parthians founded the third Persian dynasty — the 
Arsanean of classic writers. This dynasty lasted 
till A. D. 226, under thirty-four monarchs. In the 
beginning of the third century, " Adishir, of the 
Persians, founded the Sasanian dynasty, which, 
under twenty-eight or twenty-nine kings continued 
upwards of 400 years." 

Near the close of this (fourth) dynasty reigned 
Ckosroes, styled "the great," " who is considered 
by the Persians a model of justice, generosity and 
sound policy. His reign of forty-eight years — 
from a . D. 531 to 579, was the .golden age of mod- 
ern Persia." 

" He received, as tokens of homage, ambassadors, 



94 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



with rich presents, from the greatest potentates of 
the East, at his splendid palace at Ctesiphon, one 
of the wonders of that part of the world." " His 
empire extended from the Red Sea to the Indus. " 

His grandson, Chosroes II., " is still more cele- 
brated in the East for his luxury and magnificence ; 
and Oriental history abounds in tales of his palaces, 
his superb thrones, his immense treasures, his un- 
rivalled poets and musicians, his 50,000 Arab 
horses and his 3,000 beautiful women." 

And, speaking of Dastagerd, Chosroes' capital, 
the writer says : " Its marvelous beauty and pomp 
have been extolled by visitors and poets ; and even 
grave historians speak minutely of its paradise (or 
park), containing pheasants, peacocks, ostriches ; 
roebucks and wild goats ; of its lions, tigers, des- 
tined for the pleasure of the chase ; of the 960 ele- 
phants, 20,000 camels, 6,000 mules and horses ; of 
the 6,000 guards that watched before the gates ; of 
the 12,000 slaves and 3,000 women subjected to his 
caprices and passions; of the precious metals, 
gems, silks, aromatics in a hundred subterranean 
vaults of the palace ; of its 30,000 hangings, 
40,000 columns, and of its cupola, with 1,000 globes 
of gold, imitating the motion of the planets and 
the constellations of the zodiac. ,, 

Even the writer of the "Arabian Nights " refers 



MORE OF THE RAM AND HE- GOAT. 95 

to his riches : " The lady Zobeide pulled off from 
her neck a necklace worth the treasures of a Chos- 
roes." 

We have before had occasion to refer to the 
power, conquests and cruel treatment of both Jews 
and Christians of the second Chosroes ; and as this 
was the fourth dynasty from and including Cyrus, 
we submit to the judgment of the reader whether 
the " fourth king," far richer than they all, does 
not apply to this dynasty with much more pro- 
priety than to the luckless Xerxes. 

The war between Heraclius and Chosroes was 
considered as much a religious as a civil war ; and, 
being destitute of means to repel the enemy, Her- 
aclius " had recourse to the clergy, who were more 
immediately concerned in this quarrel ; of whom, 
therefore, he borrowed all the vessels of gold and 
silver belonging to the churches of Constantinople, 
which he coined into money, wherewith to pay his 
soldiers, who were marching to fight in defence of 
their lives, their liberties and religion. " 

It will further be remembered, that, in the sev- 
enth verse of the eighth chapter, the prophet 
states that he saw the he-goat " come close unto the 
ram!' Now this phraseology seems to imply very 
decidedly, that whatever power is referred to, did 
not overrun the country of the ram, only coming 



g6 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

near to it; but, by some other means or mode, 
broke his power, humbled and trampled him under 
foot. Alexander not only came close unto Media 
and Persia, but overrun them both ; and, not stop- 
ping there, conquered immense territories beyond 
them. His thus passing over and subjugating Me- 
dia and Persia, and then carrying his conquests a 
thousand miles beyond, seems to be very imper- 
fectly described by the phrase " came close unto." 

It is also stated by the prophet, " that the he- 
goat waxed very great ; and when he was strong, 
the great horn was broken." The breaking of a 
horn seems to imply something more than a nat- 
ural death. It can mean nothing less than a power 
violently destroyed, or greatly humbled by another 
power. But Alexander died in the plenitude of 
his prosperity, in his own bed, leaving his king- 
dom the most powerful on earth. 

There is no author who more confidently main- 
tains that the he-goat was Alexander, than Rollin ; 
and, in order to substantiate his position, he cites 
from Daniel, that " the great horn was broken ; 
and there came up four notable ones, towards the 
four winds of heaven ;" and then shows how Alex- 
anders domains were divided — not by any vio- 
lence, but by mutual consent. " In Europe," he 
says, " Thrace and the adjacent regions were con- 



KOBE OF THE BAM AND HE- GOAT. 97 

veyed to Lysimachus ;" " and Macedonia, Epirus 
and Greece were allotted to Antipater and Crat- 
erus." " In Africa, Egypt and the other conquests 
of Alexander in Libya and Cyrenaica, were assign- 
ed to Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, with that part of 
Arabia which borders on Egypt. ,, " In Lesser 
Asia, Lycia, Pamphylia and the greater Phrygia, 
were given to Antigonus ; Cavia to Cassander;" 
" Lydia to Menander ;" " the Lesser Phrygia to 
Leonatus ;" "Armenia to Neoptolemus ;" " Cappa- 
docia and Paphlagonia to Eumenes ;" " Syria and 
Phoenicia fell to Leomedon ;-' " one of the two Me- 
dias to Atropates," "and the other to Perdiccas ;" 
" Persia was assigned to Peucestes f " Babylonia 
toArchon; ,, " Mesopotamia to Arcesilas;" "Parthia 
and Arcania to Phrataphernes ; " Bactriana and 
Sogdiana to Philip." " The other regions were 
divided among other generals whose names are 
now but little known." 

Thus, instead of the four horns which were to 
come up out of the great broken horn of Alexander, 
we see his empire peaceably distributed to, at least, 
eighteen sovereigns, and it would be difficult to 
select out of these the four more notable than some 
other four, equally so. Indeed, it is difficult to dis- 
cover, in any possible aspect, the least resemblance 
between the disintegration of the empire of Alex- 
S 



9 8 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

ander and the prophetic end of the he-goat. It 
is true that thirty years after the death of Alex- 
ander his former dominions were measurably re- 
united, and a part of them formed nominally into 
four governments. But, after a very short time, 
the whole were again reduced to a chaotic state, 
and out of them there arose nothing like the fifth 
horn till after the lapse of 900 years. 

Let us now turn to this part of the history of 
Chosroes, and ascertain how far the actual exploits 
and the succession of that monarch correspond 
with the prophecy. We are told that " during the 
life of Maurice " (Roman emperor) " peace was 
preserved between the two nations " (Persia and 
the empire). " But on his assassination by Phocas 
in 602, Chosroes took up arms to revenge the death 
of his benefactor ; and in the space of fourteen 
years subdued almost all the provinces of the 
Greek empire. In 611 Antioch was taken ; in the 
following year Cesarea, the capital of Cappadocia, 
fell into the hands of the Persians ; in 614 the 
whole of Palestine was subdued ; in 616 Egypt was 
conquered, and Alexandria was taken by Chosroes 
himself, while another Persian army subdued the 
whole of Asia Minor, and advanced as far as the 
Bosphorus. The Roman empire was on the brink 
of ruin. The capture of Alexandria had deprived 



MORE OF THE RAM AND HE- GOAT. gg 

the inhabitants of Constantinople of their usual 
supply of corn ; the northern barbarians ravaged 
the European provinces, while the powerful Per- 
sian army on the Bosphorus was making prepara- 
tions for the siege of the imperial city. His vic- 
torious troops remained encamped for twelve years 
in the vicinity of Constantinople. " He reduced 
Heraclius and the empire to the very lowest con- 
dition of abject humility, and fairly " stamped upon 
them" insomuch that Heraclius offered to make 
peace with him on any terms he would propose. 

But it will be observed that Heraclius was not 
actually subdued, rupr the Roman Empire, prop- 
erly speaking, actually invaded ; but Chosroes with 
his Persian hosts " came close unto " the very capi- 
tal of the Empire. At the time of Chosroes' in- 
vasion, very near, if not quite, half the Christians 
in the world were found in Asia. These were all 
subjected by Chosroes, and the cruel and diabol- 
ical manner in which he maltreated and murdered 
them as Christians, could not be better expressed 
than by the casting down, and stamping upon 
them. 

The great difficulty with the prophecy lies in the 
explanation given by the angel : " The ram which 
thou sawest, having (two) horns (are) the kings of 
Media and Persia." Upon this it may be remarked 



100 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

that a horn is always the emblem of power. At 
the time of the conquest of Persia by Alexander, 
Media was not a power, nor in any way independent ; 
it had been absorbed in the empire of Persia. It 
would, therefore, seem no more proper to repre- 
sent it as a distinct horn, than the other provinces, 
which had, successively, been conquered and ab- 
sorbed into that state. But it is a well authenti- 
cated fact, that after the subversion of Media, and 
her incorporation into Persia, very many of the 
customs of Media were adopted by Persia ; and 
it seems almost certain that the symbol of a one- 
horned goat was so adopted- and this presump- 
tion is much strengthened by the inscription of 
this emblem so often appearing about the palace 
of Persepolis. 

A well-informed writer says : " Madai was the 
third son of Japheth, and father of the Medes." 
" But," he adds, " some suppose that Media is too 
distant from the other countries peopled by Ja- 
pheth, and cannot be comprehended under the name 
of the ' Isles of the Gentiles,' which were allotted 
to the sons of Japheth." 

And again, Calmet says, " Media, a country east 
of Assyria, which is supposed to have been peo- 
pled by the descendants of Madai, son of Japheth. 
The Greeks maintain that this country (Media) takes 



MOBE OF TEE BAM AND HE- GOAT. ioi 

its name from Medus, son of Medea; and truly if what 
has been said, under the article - Madai,' may be 
relied on, or if this son of Japheth peopled Mace- 
donia, we must seek another origin for the people 
of Media." In another place in Calmet we find, 
" Gomer was probably the father of the Cimbri, 
Magog of the Scythians, and Madai of the Mace- 
donians." 

We have cited these authorities to show how 
strong the testimony is that Macedonia was, and 
Media was not, peopled by the descendants of 
Madai ; for if Media was not, then the prophecy 
does not at all refer to the Medes ; but if Macedo- 
nia was, as the word Madai is used by the prophet, 
the whole force of the argument is transferred 
from Media to Macedonia : and so, as at that time 
the Roman Empire had been extended to the Bos- 
phorus, and included Macedonia as well as all 
Greece, and the civil government had been trans- 
ferred from Rome to Constantinople, while the 
ecclesiastical [the little horn] remained at Rome, 
it would not be inappropriate to symbolize the 
Eastern Empire by the horn of Macedonia, it being 
a representative kingdom of that part of the em- 
pire. 

On this very important point, we may be per- 
mitted to adduce another piece of corroborative 



102* THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

evidence of our correctness, in supposing the ram 
to symbolize the hierarchy. In Mr. Faber's essay 
on the symbolical language of prophecy, he re- 
marks : " In the rich imagery of Daniel and St. 
John, different symbols are used to signify the 
same thing ; but no one symbol is ever used to express 
different things, unless such different things have a 
manifest analogical resemblance to each other/' 
Let us bear this rule in mind while we examine 
the following paragraph from the Apocalypse, 19th 
chap, nth verse: "And I beheld another beast 
coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns 
like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." Upon this 
Bishop Newton says, " The beast with two horns 
like a lamb, is the Roman hierarchy." 

This appearance of the hierarchy, as a lamb with 
two horns, refers to that ecclesiastical power in its 
early state of existence, before it had attained the 
power of coercion and persecution. At that time, 
as a Christian institution, while it was, as yet, 
only reaching after absolute authority over the 
minds and bodies of men, it was very aptly repre- 
sented as a lamb, a lamb, however, with horns ; 
that is to say, a lamb which, in the ordinary course 
of events, and by the regular process of nature, 
would in a little time become a full-grown ram. 
Adopting the rule of symbols laid down by Faber, 



MORE OF THE RAM AND HE- GOAT. 



103 



and the comment of Newton upon the passage 
cited, it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion, 
that the ram in Daniel, standing before the river, 
with horns, or, if you please, " with two horns," 
represents the hierarchy, or, as then constituted, 
the whole Christian world, under the domination 
of the Pope of Rome, and according to Faber, 
could not represent Persia. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE HOLY CITY TRODDEN DOWN OF THE GEN~ 
TILES .1260 YEARS. 

AFTER the death of Chosroes his empire fell 
to pieces, and formed the separate national- 
ities of Persia, Arabia, Egypt, and the country 
between Persia and Europe, which became a part 
of the Roman Empire ; thus constituting four horns 
where but one had existed before, all of them suffi- 
ciently notable. This condition of affairs, how- 
ever, continued but a very short time, for out of 
one of them, namely, Arabia, " came forth a little 
horn, which waxed exceeding great." To this is 
added in our version, " toward the south, and to- 
ward the east, and toward the pleasant land." The 
Septuagint has it " pros noton pros dunamin — " to- 
ward the south with power." The one translation 
answers our purpose as well as the other. If the 
Septuagint reading be adopted, the whole passage 
will read, " And out of one of them, towards the 
(104) 



THE HOLY CITY TEODBEN DOWJST. 



107 



city shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until 
the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, we in- 
quire again, with deep interest, if there be in all 
Scripture any clue to the length of time that this 
subjection shall continue. Pursuing our inquiry, 
we turn to the second verse of the eleventh chapter 
of the Apocalypse, where the revelator gives an 
answer to this precise question : u The Holy City 
shall be trodden under foot (of the Gentiles) forty 
and two months," or 1260 prophetical years. We 
thus learn, in the most concise and definite terms, 
exactly when this Mahometan despotism will cease 
in the country of Palestine ; that is to say, in 1260 
years from the year 637 — 1897, at which time we 
may anticipate, with great confidence, the entire 
annihilation of the Mahometan power. 

To pursue this inquiry a little further, the " Host" 
was to be trodden under foot. It is well known 
that "Host" is used by way of abbreviation for 
hostia, a victim or sacrifice offered to the Deity. 
" In this sense ' Host' is more immediately under- 
stood of the person of the word incarnate, who was 
offered up a host, or hostia, to the Father on the cross, 
for the sins of mankind." Without intending to go 
into any elaborate explication of this matter, we 
submit that the desecration of the Holy City and 
all its sacred associations and surroundings, and 



108 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

the contempt with which Christ and his doctrines 
and followers have been treated, and the persecu- 
tions they have endured from the Saracens and the 
Mahometans, may well be presumed to be referred 
to by the angel when he spoke of the " Host" being 
trodden under foot, and that the same events are 
foreshadowed in these expressions by Daniel, our 
Saviour and St. John. Adding no more here, oc- 
casion will be offered to refer to the same matter 
in the sequel. 



THE HOLT CITY TBODDEN DOWJSf. 105 

south, came forth, with power, a little horn, which 
waxed exceeding great." 

Let it be remembered that Chosroes was over- 
thrown and his kingdom destroyed in 628. About 
the year 607 Mahomet first concocted his baleful 
enterprise, and soon thereafter commenced his 
public ministry, propagating his pernicious doc- 
trines among his own countrymen in Arabia, where 
the heresy spread with incredible rapidity, gaining 
adherents in vast multitudes. The people were 
buried in profound ignorance, and divided into a 
multitude of sects, all pagan and idolatrous. When 
he found his doctrine almost universally received 
there, he placed himself at the head of a company 
of thieves and fugitive slaves, who fled from all 
parts to him, allured by a promise he had given of 
protecting them, and by a law he had taught and 
published that it was the will and command of God, 
that all men should be free. By the help of these 
proselytes he assumed a sovereign power, and de- 
clared himself both king and prophet of the Sara- 
cens. 

" Such w^as his success, that with these feeble 
beginnings he subjected all Arabia, and having 
overcome the Persians in the year 632, seized on 
the government also. The Saracens, finding them- 
selves masters of that country, made incursions 

5* 



106 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

into Palestine. Jerusalem held out against Aumar 
for two years together, but surrendered at last in 
the year 637." 

In Smith's Dictionary, article " Jerusalem," we 
are told " the patriarch Sophronius surrendered to 
the Khaliff Omar in person, A. D. 637. The Kha- 
liff, after ratifying the terms of capitulation, en- 
tered the city, and was met at the gates by the 
patriarch. Sophronius received him with the un- 
coiirteous exclamation, ' Verily, this is the abom- 
ination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the 
prophet/ " 

Now, let us bear in mind that having ascertained 
that the sanctuary should be cleansed, that is anti- 
christ overthrown by the collapse of the Roman 
hierarchy in the year 1867, our design now is to 
ascertain also when we may expect a like catas- 
trophe to the Mahometan sovereignty, at least in 
the Holy Land. And learning that Jerusalem fell 
a prey to the Saracens in the year 637, we turn to 
the gospel of Luke, chap. 21 and 24th verse, where 
we find our Lord informing his disciples that "Jeru- 
salem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until 
the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled. " Hav- 
ing learned, then, that Jerusalem was captured by 
the Saracens, most emphatically " Gentiles," in the 
year 637, and having also been informed that that 



TEE HOLY CITY TRODDEN DOWN. m 

which he ruled ;" but that it was plucked up by 
Heraclius and afterwards passed under the domin- 
ion of the Arabian caliphs. Men may differ in their 
appreciation of these matters ; but, seemingly, it 
must impress every one that these descriptions in 
Daniel are almost perfect photographs of Chosroes 
and the subsequent Saracenic and Mahometan 
caliphs. Passing over the intermediate portions of 
chapter eleven, which seem to be unmistakable 
descriptions of what are sometimes denominated 
holy wars, or the wars between the nominally Chris- 
tian and the Mahometan and infidel nations, we 
proceed to a consideration of the last verse in 
the chapter, which quite as unmistakably refers 
to the Mahometan power in possession of Pales- 
tine. 

" And he shall plant the tabernacle of his palace 
between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain ; 
yet he shall come to his end and none shall help 
him." The meaning of this passage appears too 
plain to admit of any elucidation. The chapter 
commences with a brief account of the origin of 
the Mahometan sway in the Holy Land, and in the 
countries adjacent; and after recounting, among 
other things, their various successes and defeats, it 
ends with the affirmation that this power was at 
last fully established in that land ; and then closes 



112 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

emphatically with the statement that "he shall 
come to his end and none shall help him." 

Our present aim is to prove by cumulative evi- 
dence when this Mahometan sway shall come to its 
end. We have before learned from Scripture that 
the Holy City shall be trodden down by the Gen- 
tiles 1260 years. The fact is also affirmed by Dan- 
iel in the seventh verse of the twelfth chapter. 
Now it will be borne in mind that the eleventh 
chapter is devoted mostly if not altogether to those 
matters in which the Mahometan power was chiefly 
concerned ; and that it begins and ends with refer- 
ence to the same power. Another matter is then 
advanced, which we shall soon discuss, beginning 
at that same period, between which and the seventh 
verse of the twelfth chapter,- nothing pf any impor- 
tance is revealed affecting time. But in the sixth 
verse, some one inquires of an angel, " How long 
shall it be to the end of these wonders ?" The 
prophet says : " I heard the man clothed in linen, 
when he held up his right hand and his left hand 
unto heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever 
and ever, that f it shall be for a time, times and a 
half.' " 

Under these circumstances it cannot be believed 
that this period of 1260 years synchronizes with 
the same period mentioned in the twenty-fifth verse 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

WE cannot doubt that the eleventh chapter 
of Daniel is almost entirely devoted to a 
foreshadowing of the various religious wars and 
revolutions which have taken place, and will occur, 
between the first taking away the daily sacrifice, 
and the setting up the abomination that maketh 
desolate in the year 607, and the overthrow of Ma- 
hometanism ; including the wars of the crusades, 
and the frequent and desolating incursions of the 
Mahometans into Europe. But it does not fall 
within the scope of our design to attempt an eluci- 
dation of this portion of the prophecy, or to use it 
any further than is necessary to the full understand- 
ing of our theory. 

It is hardly possible for any one to doubt that 
the " mighty king" described in the third verse of 
this chapter is the same with the " he-goat" in the 

(io 9 ) 



HO THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

* 
fifth verse of the eighth chapter ; and the revela- 
tions in the fourth and fifth verses of this chapter 
point to the same transactions with those from the 
sixth to the ninth inclusive, in the eighth chapter. 
If the former explication of those verses in our 
eighth chapter be correct, then here the eleventh 
chapter introduces, most appropriately, again the 
Mahometan power, which through the succeeding 
1260 years was to exercise so marvellous an influ- 
ence upon the Christian world, and especially upon 
the Holy Land. 

"And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall 
rule with great dominion, and do according to his 
will." If we mistake not, this refers to Chosroes, 
king of Persia, in his early prosperity. " And when 
he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and 
shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven." 
After he had become the terror of the Christian 
world, Heraclius, the emperor, in a very short time 
utterly demolished him and his kingdom. "And 
not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion, 
which he ruled ; for his kingdom shall be plucked 
up, even for others besides those." We have, in a 
former chapter, seen how completely Chosroes* 
empire was subverted and " divided toward the 
four winds ;" and how the succession passed "not 
to his posterity," "nor according to his dominion, 



THE HOLT CITY TRODDEN DOWK 113 

of the seventh chapter. It has already been proved 
that that refers to the time during which the saints 
were delivered into the hand and held by the 
power of antichrist, commencing when the daily 
sacrifice was taken away, and ending at the cleans- 
ing of the sanctuary in 1867. But this in the twelfth 
chapter as clearly refers to the question not an- 
swered by Palmoni in the thirteenth verse of the 
eighth chapter : " How long shall the host be trod- 
den under foot?" The question in the sixth verse 
of the twelfth chapter is not in the same form, but 
doubtless refers to that, as well as to other matters, 
as recorded in the beginning of the twelfth chap- 
ter : " How long shall it be to the end of these 
wonders ?" Now we have already learned from pro- 
fane history, that Jerusalem was conquered by the 
Saracens in the year 637, and the passages quoted 
from the New Testament, as well as this now under 
consideration, prove that it must be trodden down 
of the Gentiles 1260 years, which will end in 1897. 
In the eleventh verse of the twelfth chapter we 
are told that from " the time the daily sacrifice shall 
be taken away, and the abomination that maketh 
desolate set up, there shall be ' a thousand two hun- 
dred and ninety (days) years/ " It appears, there- 
fore, that from the time when Boniface was consti- 
tuted Universal Bishop, and Mahomet concocted 



1 14 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

his heresy, to the year in which it has been proved 
Jerusalem will have been trodden down of the 
Gentiles 1260 years ; that is, from the year 607 to 
the year 1897 is the time mentioned in this elev- 
enth verse, namely 1290 years. If this be not 
the true exposition of this passage, the coincidences 
are certainly most remarkable. 

We state, then, these propositions, which seem 
to be most clearly proved, 

First, The saints were delivered into the power 
of antichrist in the year 607, and, consequently, will 
be delivered out of his hands by his overthrow in 
1867. And, 

Second, The Holy Land, and especially Jerusa- 
lem (the " Host"), were commenced to be trodden 
under foot of the Gentiles in 637 ; and, conse- 
quently, will be delivered from their oppression in 
1897. 






CHAPTER XIII. 

THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 

WE will now proceed to the consideration of 
some other events, recorded in this proph- 
ecy, of the most stupendous importance, but de- 
pending for the period of their fulfillment, not upon 
any specified epoch ; but the time of their develop- 
ment being in each case a corollary or sequence 
from those others which have heretofore been con- 
sidered at large. 

The closing paragraph of the eleventh chapter 
declares, that "he shall plant the tabernacles of 
his palaces between the seas, in the glorious holy 
mountain ; yet he shall come to his end and none 
shall help him. ,, In the beginning of the next 
(12th) chapter, the prophet presents in the most 
vivid colors the scenes which are immediately to 
follow the overthrow of Mahometanism and speed- 
ily to usher in the millennium. 

("5) 



Il6 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

" At that time, ,, that is to say, at the time when 
the Mahometan power in Palestine shall come to 
an end, " at that time shall Michael stand up, the 
great prince, which standeth for the children of thy 
people, and there shall be a time of trouble, such 
as never was since there w r as a nation, even to that 
same time. And at that time thy people shall be 
delivered, every one that shall be found written in 
the book. And many of them that sleep in the 
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting 
life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. ,, 
These four or five distinct propositions are not 
necessarily coincident in time ; but follow each, 
probably, in the order of arrangement. Truly, to 
comprehend their momentous import, in the mind 
of the prophet, we must place ourselves at his 
stand-point. Let us pause, then, here a moment to 
contemplate his peculiar and soul-stirring position. 

Himself an exile from his country, he looks for- 
ward, in vision, through a period of more than two 
thousand years, and sees Jerusalem, the Holy City, 
the place beloved beyond all others by all Jews, 
whether present there or absent — he sees Jerusalem 
and the Holy Land, Palestine, the Land of Canaan, 
ages before promised to his nation, conquered by 
a new race of Pagans, " Gentiles,'' whose very exist- 
ence, as a people, commenced centuries after he 



BEST ORATION OF THE JEWS. 



11/ 



saw this amazing vision. He sees this new power 
plant his tabernacles and erect his mosques be- 
tween the seas, even in Jerusalem, the glorious holy 
mountain. He sees this resistless power enforce, 
by fire and sword, his own detestable heresies, for 
a long series of ages; but having before given 
a short summary of intervening events, deems it 
necessary here only to note the final decline and 
fall of that power by which the beloved land had 
so long been trodden in the dust. He describes 
this great event with characteristic and chastened 
brevity, but extraordinary power. " He shall come 
to his end and none shall help him." His eye now 
ranges down the vista of time, until the power that 
conquered and desolated the Holy City has fallen, 
never to rise again. But another event of equal, 
if not more thrilling interest, now flashes upon his 
vision, apparently without any lapse of intermedi- 
ate time, after the destruction of Mahometanism. 
"At that time shall Michael stand up, the great 
prince, which standeth for the children of thy peo- 
ple/' evidently signifying some event propitious to 
the rising fortunes of the Jewish nation, and these 
soul-stirring spectacles are followed immediately 
by a time of trouble such as never was since there 
was a nation, even to that same time. How long 
this period would continue, he was not here told ; 



H8 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

but it is quite evident that it must last for a se- 
ries of years, to afford room for the fulfillment of 
all the troubles predicted. And then follows the 
announcement which must have been most trying 
to the faith of an early Hebrew, as the resurrection 
of the dead had been preached to them, if at all, in 
dubious and uncertain terms : "Many of them that 
sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to 
everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting 
contempt." And then follows the other announce- 
ment — to him, of all others, the most interesting — 
that at' the close of a time, times and half a time, 
1260 years, from the same epoch, the subjugation of 
Jerusalem, there shall be an end to the dispersion 
of God's chosen people, and all the stupendous 
events in the future, which have been revealed him, 
shall be accomplished. 

It is not possible for our imaginations to conceive 
of the glorious ecstacy of the prophet, at the close 
of these marvellous and astounding revelations. 
At a single view he sees his own people, through 
successive ages, scattered over the four quarters of 
the world, enduring the threatened punishment of 
God, in their persecutions, humiliations and suffer- 
ings unexampled in the history of our race ; and 
then, at the close, he sees them restored to their 
own country, and exalted in the favor of God fai 



BESTOBATION OF THE JEWS. 119 

above aught that they experienced in the most 
prosperous periods of their ancient history. We 
cannot doubt that his feelings of excitement and 
ecstacy very far transcended those which he assures 
us he experienced on a former occasion, not half 
so thrilling as the present : " I, Daniel, fainted and 
was sick ; and I was astonished at the vision ; I set 
my face toward the ground and I became dumb/' 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

IN former times the restoration of the Jews to 
the Holy Land was universally believed, and 
formed a theme of constant public prayer. This 
custom has fallen very much into disuse ; not be- 
cause the subject matter has become less interest- 
ing in itself, but from a lessened attention to it, 
growing out of the fact that so many anticipations, 
founded upon the prophecies, have been disap- 
pointed. For this reason let us group together a 
few paragraphs touching the subject, as found in 
the Old Testament. In Jeremiah, the 23d chapter 
and 7th and 8th verses : " Behold, the days come, 
saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The 
Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel 
out of the land of Egypt ; but, The Lord liveth, 
which brought up and which led the seed of the 
house of Israel out of the north country, and from 
(120) 



RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 121 

all countries whither I had driven them, and they 
shall dwell in their own land." A similar passage 
is found in Ezekiel, 36th chapter and 24th verse : 
" For I will take you from among the heathen, and 
gather you out of all countries, and will bring you 
into your own land." In the 21st and 22d verses 
of the 37th chapter, we are told : " Thus saith the 
Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel 
from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and 
will gather them on every side, and bring them into 
their own land ; and I will make them one nation 
in the land upon the mountains of Israel ; and one 
king shall be king to them all ; and they shall no 
more be two nations, neither shall they be divided 
into two kingdoms any more at all." In the 3d chap- 
ter of Hosea, the 4th and 5th verses, we are in- 
formed that " the children of Israel shall abide 
many days without a king, and without a prince, 
and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and 
without an ephod, and without teraphim. After- 
wards shall the children of Israel return, and seek 
the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall 
fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days." 
Now, it is possible that some will say that all these, 
and numerous other prophecies of a like import, 
were fulfilled in the restoration of the Jews after 
the Babylonian captivity. Without spending time 
6 



122 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

and space to controvert such a theory, we quote 
again from Amos, 9th chapter and 14th and 15th 
verses : " I will bring again the captivity of my 
people Israel, and they shall build the waste 
cities, and inhabit them ; and they shall plant vine- 
yards and drink the wine thereof; they shall also 
make gardens and eat the fruit of them ; and I will 
plant them upon their land ; and they shall no more 
be pulled out of their land which I have given them, 
saith the Lord thy God/' Whatever may be 
thought of other passages quoted, it is quite cer- 
tain that this cannot apply to the Jews in any pe- 
riod of their past history. Their present disper- 
sion over the whole world is sufficient to refute 
any such proposition. Other passages appear to 
be quite as decisive as this, as in the 37th chapter 
of Ezekiel, 23d, 24th, 25th verses : " Neither shall 
they defile themselves any more with idols, nor 
with their detestable things, nor with any of their 
transgressions ; but I will save them out of all 
their dwelling-places wherein they have sinned, 
and will cleanse them ; so shall they be my people 
and I will be their God : and David my servant shall 
be king over them ; and they shall have one shep- 
herd, and they shall dwell in the land that I have 
given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers 
have dwelt ; and they shall dwell therein, even they 



BESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 



123 



and their children and their children's children 
forever ; and my servant David shall be their prince 
forever." There seems no power of language, and 
no stretch of imagination, which can make this de- 
scription agree with the past history of the Jews. 

As a conclusion to these extracts, a quotation 
from Mr. Whiston's " Essay on the Revelation of 
Saint John," will be very applicable and appropri- 
ate : " Upon this occasion it will be fit to set down 
old Tobit's most famous prophecy, or rather inter- 
pretation of the more ancient prophecies, relating 
to the present grand dispersion of the Jews, and 
to their so much expected restoration ; which pro- 
phecies have been so often misunderstood by our 
late Christian commentators. And this passage is 
the more remarkable because of its great antiquity, 
being written some time before several books of 
the Old Testament ; and because, in the vulgar 
Greek copy, part of the most material point is 
omitted, and can now only be restored from a most 
ancient Hebrew version made from the original 
Chaldee, which version is still extant. The pas- 
sage is this : " As to our brethren the Israelites 
who dwell at Jerusalem, they shall all be carried 
captive and Jerusalem shall be laid in heaps ; and 
the house of God shall be desolate for a small time. 
Then shall the children of Israel ascend and re- 



124 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



build the city and the temple ; but not according 
to the former building. And there shall they in- 
habit many days, until an age be completed. And 
then shall they depart again to an exceeding great 
captivity. But there also shall the Holy Blessed 
God be mindful of them, and shall gather them 
from the four parts of the world. Then shall Jeru- 
salem the Holy City be restored with curious and 
stately building. And the temple also shall be 
magnificently built, never to be destroyed again 
forever and ever, as the prophets have foretold. 
Then shall these nations be converted ; they shall 
worship the Lord, and shall cast away the im- 
ages of their gods ; and by a confessing of him 
shall give praises to his great name. He also 
shall exalt the name of his people before all na- 
tions." 

If it be conceded that the Jews will be restored 
to their own land, these questions present them- 
selves for our further consideration ; namely, Will 
the whole of those who claim to be the children 
of Abraham, now scattered to the four winds of 
heaven, and amounting in the aggregate to 5,000,- 
000, be returned to the land of their ancestors ? Or, 
will only such as shall be converted to Christianity 
thus be restored ? And, whichever may be the case, 
when will this restoration be accomplished ? Rea- 



RESTOBATION OF THE JEWS. 125 

soning a priori, we should say, without hesitation, 
that none could be returned to the Holy Land, but 
such as shall have cast off the Jewish religion and 
embraced Christianity ; for their unbelief in a cru- 
cified Saviour, and the despite they have done him, 
have undoubtedly been the chief causes of their 
dispersion. Would it, then, be consistent with 
divine justice, and with the examples of God's 
treatment of sinners in all ages, to so severely pun- 
ish the Hebrew race, as he has done, for near two 
thousand years, for a sin, and then, without any 
repentance for that sin, now remit the penalty to 
those who are certainly equally guilty in their un- 
belief? It may be, and, indeed, is, quite possible, 
that the whole Hebrew race shall repent and em- 
brace Christianity, before the time for their restora- 
tion shall have expired ; though such a universal 
repentance is not in accordance with our frequent 
experience. 

In support of this view of the case, a multitude 
of passages might be quoted from other propheti- 
cal books than Daniel ; a few will suffice. In the 
thirty-second chapter of Isaiah, beginning with the 
thirteenth verse : " Upon the land of my people 
shall come up thorns and briers," " because the 
palaces shall be forsaken, " " the forts and towers 
shall be for dens forever, a joy of wild asses, a pas- 



126 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

ture of flocks, until the Spirit be poured out upon us 
from on high" " Then judgment shall dwell in the 
wilderness and righteousness remain in the fruit- 
ful field. And the work of righteousness shall be 
peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and 
assurance forever. iVnd my people shall dwell in a 
peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings and 
quiet resting places." In the ninth chapter of Jere- 
miah, the sixteenth verse, it is said : " I will scatter 
them also among the heathen, whom neither they 
nor their fathers have known ;" and then in the 
twenty-third chapter, fifth and sixth verses : " Be- 
hold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will 
raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a king 
shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judg- 
ment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah 
shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and 
this is his name, whereby he shall be called, The 
Lord Our Righteousness.' ' In the thirty -first 
chapter of Jeremiah, tenth and eleventh verses, it 
is written : " He that scattereth Israel, will gather 
him and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock. 
For the Lord hath redeemed Israel." Verse thirty- 
third : " This shall be the covenant I will make 
with the house of Israel, After those days, saith the 
Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and 
write it in their hearts ; and will be their God, and 



BESTORATION OF THE JEWS. 127 

they shall be my people. They shall all know me 
from the least unto the greatest, saith the Lord ; for 
I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember 
their sin no more." So, too, in the paragraph be- 
fore quoted from Hosea, third chapter and fifth 
verse : " Afterwards shall the children of Israel re- 
turn and seek the Lord their God, and David their 
king ; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness, in 
the latter days." It seems, judging from these and 
such like statements, often repeated, that either all 
the Jews will be converted, before the day of their 
return, or only those who have so repented and 
believed, will be restored. 

We are now prepared to analyze carefully the 
scope and meaning of the paragraphs relating to 
this matter in the twelfth chapter of Daniel ; from 
which we shall be able also, probably, to throw 
some additional light upon the question just pre- 
sented. The first statement is in the first verse: 
"At that time" that is, simultaneously or immedi- 
ately after the overthrow of Mahometanism — "At 
that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince 
which standeth for the children of my people." 
This plainly imports that the time has now ar- 
rived, in the course of Providence, when some- 
thing favorable — some happy change is about to 
be meted out to the people of the Jews. In the 









128 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

close of the same verse, we are further informed 
that " at that time thy people (that is, the Jews,) 
shall be delivered, every one that shall be found 
written in the book/' Taking into consideration 
all the prophecies asserting the dispersion of that 
people ; their sufferings during the long ages of 
that dispersion ; and the promises of their final 
restoration, there can be no doubt that this an- 
nouncement of the prophet, relates to their return, 
and fixes its commencement or preparation most 
incontestably, namely, immediately after the fall of 
Mahometanism in Palestine, which has been shown 
will occur in the year of our Lord 1897. The last 
sentence of the verse seems to confirm fully the 
former view expressed, of the restoration only of 
those who have cast off Judaism and become Chris- 
tians : " Every one that shall be found written in 
the book/' namely, all such as shall be converted 
to Christianity. Here, however, it will be observed 
that, intermediate in this verse, between the clause 
in which it is affirmed that "at that time" Michael 
shall stand up for the Jews, and tlie last one, "at 
that time," thy people shall be delivered, another 
clause is interposed, as follows : " And there shall 
be a time of trouble such as never was, since there 
was a nation. ,, "At that time" in the commence- 
ment of the verse, refers undoubtedly to the de- 



BEST ORATION OF THE JEWS. 129 

struction of the Mahometan power only ; while the 
use of the same phrase at the close of the verse, as 
evidently refers to the whole time of trouble, which 
will continue for a number of years. In itself, it is 
of small consequence whether their restoration is 
accomplished in one or forty years ; but we should 
presume, a priori, that the transition state would 
occupy a considerable time ; for the collection of 
half a million or five millions of people, from " the 
north country and from all countries," and their 
transportation by land and sea, to one point, would 
necessarily extend through a series of years. This 
is, however, a matter upon which no words need 
be wasted, inasmuch as intrinsically it is of very 
little importance when viewed in the light of their 
dispersion through so many ages. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE TWELFTH CHAPTER OF DANIEL. 

TO many, and probably the larger part of those 
who give but a casual attention to this sub- 
ject, the twelfth chapter of Daniel seems a con- 
fused, incongruous and unintelligible mass of facts 
and dates, and in very many cases, the investiga- 
tion of its meaning has been abandoned, as hope- 
lessly obscure. But there is no portion of Revela- 
tion which will not pay for a diligent and careful 
research ; and in our study of this chapter, al- 
though the conclusions reached, may be very much 
one side of the true interpretation of the predic- 
tions of the prophet, nevertheless they may, per- 
haps, be of some use, as a means of directing the 
minds of other enquirers into a truer path, and 
thus, at some future time of eliciting a more satis- 
factory explication of the great truths embodied 
therein. 

We have, heretofore, endeavored to prove, by 
(130) 



THE TWELFTH CHAPTER OF DANIEL. 131 

argument, founded upon specific prophecies, and 
if our premises be granted, it seems we have logi- 
cally proved, that the twin delusions of Rome and 
Mahomet will terminate, so far as the supreme and 
ruling oppressive power is concerned, the one in 
1867, and the other in 1897. And this great event, 
so far as the Mahometan domination over Palestine 
and the Holy City is concerned, was expressly af- 
firmed in the last verse of the eleventh chapter: 
" He shall come to his end, and none shall help 
him. ,, 

It will be observed, however, that although we 
have established the fact that this will occur in 
1897, the prophecies, on which this date is fixed, 
are not found in Daniel, so far as our investigations 
have yet gone, but upon the declaration of Christ 
and of Saint John in the Apocalypse. Laying 
aside for the present all reference to them, we now 
propose to confine our enquiry, as to time, to this 
prophecy of Daniel, barely calling in the aid of a 
single fact of profane history. 

In the first two verses of the twelfth chapter we 
find a collection of most wonderful events foretold, 
all depending, in no small degree, upon the fact 
expressed in the last verse of the eleventh chapter, 
for their respective times of accomplishment ; and 
now here a question of great interest arises, wheth- 



132 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



er it be possible, by any fair course of argument, 
to fix with precision the several dates of the mo- 
mentous events foreshown in this last chapter. 
Claiming no infallibility, we only desire a fair con- 
sideration of the positions we take in carrying out 
to their just conclusions, our theory of Daniel's 
prophecy. 

We begin then with the year 607 and 637, as two 
fixed epochs, from which we are to make our de- 
ductions and reasonings of all the periods men- 
tioned in this chapter, namely, the year 607, that 
in which the sanctuary was desecrated and the 
abomination of desolation set up, and 637, that in 
which the Host — the Holy City was first trod- 
den under foot of the gentiles. And here, for the 
clearer illustration of the events recorded, we take 
occasion to submit a fact, which the course of our 
previous investigations has not rendered it neces- 
sary for us particularly to consider. It has often 
been claimed, by those who have written upon the 
subject, that Mahomet commenced the propagation 
of his heresy in the year 606. It doubtless occurred 
at or about that time. He was born in 569. Ac- 
cording to some authorities 572. And historians 
inform us that he begun his public ministry in the 
fortieth year of his age, and it may be presumed 
that his system was inaugurated not long before 



THE TWELFTH CHAPTEB OF DANIEL. 



133 



the year 608. Without therefore pretending to fix 
the date of the birth of that pernicious heresy with 
historical exactness, we may assume with as much 
confidence as properly belongs to the subject, that 
this occurred in the year 607 or 608, or the same 
year that the Bishop of Rome was created by Pho- 
cas Sovereign Pontiff. If this were so, the dupli- 
cated questions, as stated in the thirteenth verse of 
the eighth chapter, were with very great propriety 
placed in such juxtaposition ; for the two great 
matters about which the enquiries were made, 
namely, the desecration of the sanctuary and the 
setting up of the transgression of desolation, would 
have had their origin cotemporaneously. The ques- 
tions were : " How long shall be the vision con- 
cerning first, the daily sacrifice, and second, the 
transgression of desolation, to give both, first, the 
sanctuary, and second, the Host, to be trodden 
under foot." Now, if our view of these questions 
be correct, it will be seen at once, that one answer 
would not meet both questions ; for the sanctuary 
must be cleansed, a considerable time before the 
Host ceases to be trodden under foot. And so 
Palmoni expressly limits his answer to the first 
question — Two thousand (four) hundred (years), 
then shall the sanctuary be cleansed — thus leaving 
the other question unanswered. 



134 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

Passing now again over to the twelfth chapter, 
" At that time/' with which the first verse begins, 
is fixed and known the moment we can ascertain 
when the power mentioned in the preceding chap- 
ter shall come to his end. We now pass on to the 
question proposed in the sixth verse of the twelfth 
chapter. " How long shall it be to the end of these 
wonders ?" Before this question was put, a great 
variety of intensely interesting matter had been 
disclosed to the amazed vision of the prophet ; and 
it will be borne in mind that the things recorded 
in the eleventh as well as the twelfth chapters, were 
all manifested to him in one and the same vision. 
In this vision he had first been enlightened as to 
the domination of the Mahometans over the Holy 
Land, through the whole period of that domination 
to its close, and this comprises the whole of the 
eleventh chapter ; he then goes on in the twelfth 
chapter, the first two verses, with the briefest possi- 
ble statement of the other wonderful events to oc- 
cur thereafter. At this point of time the question 
is asked : " How long shall it be to the end of these 
wonders?" We remark here, that, in this case, as 
in the thirteenth verse of the eighth chapter, it was 
impossible for one answer to meet the whole ques- 
tion, because matters were covered by the question 
which would end at different times. Such being 



THE TWELFTH CHAPTER OF DANIEL. 135 

the case, we inquire, to which of these times would 
the angel naturally give his first answer? Cer- 
tainly to the matter first presented to the prophet 
in this vision — that is the matter contained in the 
eleventh chapter. To this we add, that it was im- 
possible that he should answer in any other way ; 
for the very revelation itself shows that the last 
verse of the eleventh chapter closed up one series 
of revelations ; while the first verse of the twelfth 
chapter as plainly commenced another series. A 
single answer, therefore, carrying the time down 
to the conclusion of the last series, would, at least, 
greatly mislead the inquirer. Another considera- 
tion certainly fixes it upon the first series ; for the 
other answer, which we shall soon consider, uses a 
negative pregnant of unanswerable force. 

We therefore find the answer given in perfect 
consistency with this hypothesis. " I heard the 
man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters 
of the river, when he held up his right hand and 
his left hand unto heaven, and sware by Him that 
liveth forever and ever, that it shall be for a time, 
times and a half. ,, It will be observed that to this 
period of 1260 years, there is given neither begin- 
ning nor ending, which, upon any other presump- 
tion than that we have made, would amount to no 
answer at all ; but upon our theory it is perfectly 



136 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

complete, for it declares that the Mahometan dom- 
ination shall continue over the Holy Land for a 
time, times and a half; precisely coinciding also 
with the declaration in the second verse of the 
eleventh chapter of the Revelations, " The Holy 
City shall be trodden down of the Gentiles fort)^- 
and-two months ;" in both cases, 1260 years. 

Having thus disposed of the first answer of the 
angel, with a reasonable degree of confidence in 
the correctness of our interpretation, we proceed 
to the consideration of the other answer to the 
same question. Any one carefully studying the 
text, will perceive that although there are several 
matters proposed and unfolded to Daniel in this 
vision, yet they are all divisible, as to time, into 
two parts, and only two, the first coming down to 
the end of the eleventh chapter; the other com- 
prehending all the rest. Having answered the first 
so distinctly, as we have before shown, the angel 
now, with equal perspicuousness, though without 
fixing the exact date, replies to the other branch 
of the question. Indeed, although no date be spe- 
cifically stated, yet inferentially the time is fixed 
with perfect exactness. " When he shall have accom- 
plished to scatter the power of the Holy people, all 
these things shall be finished/' Upon this we first 
remark, that the phrase " Holy people," does not 



THE TWELFTH CHAPTER OF DANIEL. 137 

mean a people free from sin, but that nation which 
has long been distinguished as the chosen people 
of God ; and again, that there can be no possible 
doubt that the man clothed in linen intended to 
divide the time into two portions ; the " time, times 
and a half," comprising one, and all subsequent to 
that constituting the other portion. The matters 
developed in the same "time, times and a half," 
forming one class ; and all the other matters dis- 
closed forming the other class. First, there shall 
be a "time, times, and a half." And then, after 
that, "when" he shall have accomplished his own 
purposes in scattering his chosen people, " all these 
things shall be finished ;" and this is in perfect con- 
sistency Avith the revelations in the former part of 
the chapter. With the eleventh chapter ends all 
disclosures in relation to the subjects therein dis- 
cussed ; with the twelfth, new matters are proposed ; 
first, the standing up of Michael " for the children 
of thy people." Second, the time of trouble such 
as never was since there was a nation. And then, 
as the last act in this most amazing drama, " Thy 
people shall be delivered." It is true, another 
scene of overwhelming interest follows this in the 
text ; " Many of them that sleep in the dust of the 
earth shall awake ;" but in point of fact it is evident 
that this is concurrent with the final closing up of 



138 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

the restoration of the Jews. We are thus apprised, 
with a surprising degree of positiveness and cer- 
tainty, that the moment that this great event shall 
have been accomplished, to wit, the final restora- 
tion of the Jews, all the other events foretold by 
Daniel shall be finished. Another event is fore- 
told of not less thrilling interest than either of the 
preceding, but which it was not necessary for us 
before to notice : At that time, cotemporaneously 
with the close of all these soul - stirring events, 
Daniel was further informed that "they that be 
wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; 
and they that turn many to righteousness, as the 
stars forever and ever/' The commencement of 
this period of happiness for the blessed and chosen 
would be the exact time when " many of them that 
sleep in the dust shall awake." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

I29O AND 1335 YEARS. 

BUT it is apparent from what has been said, 
that up to the present time, nothing has been 
disclosed by the angel or shown by our argument, 
fixing the day and year when " all these things shall 
be finished." We know, to be sure, that they will 
be accomplished concurrently with another event ; 
but, so far, we have had no express revelation by 
Daniel, disclosing in what year of our present era 
these events shall be finished. 

At this .point we are told by Daniel, that he 
heard but understood not. " Then, said I, O my 
Lord, what shall be the end of these things ?" He 
is now addressed by the angel : " Go thy way, Dan- 
iel, for the words are closed up, and sealed till the 
time of the end." But although he thus assured 
Daniel that all future prophecy on these matters 
was sealed up, he nevertheless did not withhold 
some further information in answer to this last 

(*39) 



140 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



question ; not a new or further prophecy, but a few 
words by way of explanation of what had gone 
before ; that is to say, he makes his two answers to 
the former questions more intelligible. 

The former answer to the first matter suggested 
was given, without specifying either beginning or 
ending, a " time, times and a half." Now, in giving 
further information, he is precise and specific, both 
as to beginning and ending, and to furnis'h corrob- 
orative proof, and at the same time leave no doubt 
of his meaning, he goes back to a fixed and per- 
fectly well understood epoch, as before presented 
in the eighth chapter, and makes that his starting 
point, and not the time when Jerusalem surren- 
dered to Aumar, which was the time referred to in 
his first answer, as well as by John in the Apoca- 
lypse. He now answers again : " From the time 
that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the 
abomination that maketh desolate set up." The 
first of these has already been proved to be the sur- 
render of the whole Christian church to the des- 
potic government of one man, Boniface, and his suc- 
cessors ; and as to the last, if our postulate be well 
founded, that the heresy of Mahomet, namely, was 
inaugurated in the year 607, then certainly this 
abomination of desolation was set up, in the same 
year, and this coupling them together, would be 



1290 AND 1335 YEABS. 



141 



perfectly in accordance with the fact. " From the 
time that the daily sacrifice was taken away," (the 
supremacy of Boniface, 607,) " and the abomination 
that maketh desolate set up," (the inception of Ma- 
hometanism, also in 607,) " there shall be a thousand 
two hundred and ninety " years. This seems to 
refer to the same matter in the first answer, before 
given, namely, the term and fall of the Mahometan 
power in the Holy Land ; both should therefore 
terminate at the same time, and if they do, it would 
afford no slight presumption that they are both 
right. According to our former argument, the 
" time, times and a. half," 1260 years from the sub- 
jection of Jerusalem, should end in the year 1897 ; 
so now here, too, 1290 years from the year 607, the 
time the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the 
abomination of desolation set up, will end in the 
same year. 

It is not at all probable that from, or in a state of 
prosperity and power, this great empire of the 
Turks will be crushed in a day. Empires, like liv- 
ing beings, have their birth and growth and decay. 
Setting aside exceptional cases, the period of the 
decay of nations runs through a series of years ; 
they consume, waste away, and are destroyed. In 
this case, it cannot be presumed that the great em- 
pire of Turkey will pass from a condition of power 



142 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



and prosperity to utter annihilation in a single 
year. We may rather expect that the Euphrates 
will dry up, will disappear after a season of years 
of decadence. In this case, we may well presume 
that much of this process of decay will precede, 
rather than succeed the designated period. 

A peculiarity of Daniel in communicating his 
facts is worthy of notice. In the seventh chapter, 
he informs us that the saints should be delivered 
into the hands of the little horn, " for a time, times 
and the dividing of time," thereby indicating that 
the Church should be subjected to the Roman 
tyranny for a period of 1260 years; but he here 
gives neither the time of beginning nor ending. 
But in the next chapter he declares that the sanc- 
tuary shall be cleansed in 2400 years, from the time 
of his then present speaking, and then afterwards 
adds twenty-one years ; thus fixing the time at 
which the subjection of the saints shall cease, with 
perfect exactness, namely the year 1867. 

Precisely parallel with this is his mode of instruc- 
tion, as to the domination of Mahometanism, in the 
twelfth chapter. In the seventh verse he informs 
us that " it will be for a time, times and a half," giv- 
ing no indications when it will commence, or when 
it will end. But precisely as before, he afterwards 
shows by a different statement of the same facts, 



1290 AND 1335 YEARS. 



H3 



exactly when this " time, times and a half" will end, 
namely, in 1290 years after the daily sacrifice shall 
be taken away, and the transgression of desolation 
set up. There certainly is a very remarkable par- 
allelism between the two cases. 

A similar mode of presenting the fact is observed 
also in the other great disclosure of time. When he 
first gives an account of the closing up of the Chris- 
tian dispensation, in the seventh verse of the twelfth 
chapter, he leaves the date entirely unexplained, 
except by reference to the accomplishment of an- 
other event : " When he shall have accomplished 
to scatter the power of the holy people, all these 
things shall be finished/' Although here the fact 
be affirmed with undoubted certainty, and the time 
will ultimately be certainly known, yet relying upon 
this prediction alone, it could not be known until 
the day of its fulfillment. But following this up, 
as he did in the other cases, he informs us in the 
following paragraph of the exact time when it shall 
be fulfilled. It is true, this time could not have 
been known to Daniel and students of his age, nor 
of any age, until Phocas' decree, except by a pro- 
cess of argument and reasoning scarcely to have 
been expected ; yet to those who have lived since, 
it might have been known with great confidence, 
at any period of time. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

TWELFTH CHAPTER, TWELFTH VERSE. 

TO the first question, " How long shall it be to 
the end of these wonders ?" the man clothed 
in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, 
had given two answers, neither of which, however, 
would enable one standing in Daniel's position to 
fix any definite date. 

To the second question, " What shall be the end of 
these things ?" he has already given the further and 
needed information, explanatory of the first answer 
to the first question. The second answer to the first 
question was, " When he shall have accomplished to 
scatter the power of the holy people, all these things 
shall be finished. ,, He is now about to elucidate 
again this answer in the 12th verse, which he does 
by declaring, "Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh 
to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty " 
years. This is unquestionably intended as supple- 
(144) 



TWELFTH CHAPTER, TWELFTH VEBSE. 145 

mentary to the second answer to the first question, 
and to shed further light on the subject of that 
answer. The man clothed in linen, under the sol- 
emn oath he had taken, commenced the first of 
these two answers, by giving a stand-point from 
which to make his computation of the duration of 
the period now under investigation, " from the time 
the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the 
abomination that maketh desolate set up," from 
which epoch he had already made his first reckon- 
ing of " a thousand two hundred and ninety " years. 
He then proceeds in such terms as to leave no 
room for doubt, that in his next reckoning he dates 
from the same epoch ; so that if the sentence were 
made full and complete, without reference to the 
former answer, it would read, " Blessed is he that 
waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred 
and five and thirty " years, from the time when the 
daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abom- 
ination that maketh desolate set up ; thus giving 
us just as distinct a perception of the time to this 
blessed period, as had already been given of the 
time of the overthrow of Mahometanism in the 
Holy Land. If this view of the case be correct, 
then we have a flood of light poured upon the other 
parts of this chapter ; for it will present this aspect : 
We are informed, first, that there shall be a time 
7 



146 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

of unspeakable trouble ; next, that " at that time " 
the people of the Jews will be delivered. We are 
then told that when this great event, the restora- 
tion of the Jew^s, shall be accomplished, all these 
things foretold by Daniel " shall be finished." And 
now in this 12th verse we are further informed, by 
the man clothed in linen, upon the waters of the 
river, under the obligation of a most solemn oath, 
that there will be a blessed time — undoubtedly, 
taking all these predictions together, referring to 
the very same event — there will be a blessed time 
* n 1 335 years, after the daily sacrifice shall be taken 
away, and the abomination that maketh desolate 
shall be set up, which we have shown, will be in 
the year of our Lord 1942. 

We have now reached that point of our argu- 
ment where we can make our computations of each 
several time expressed or implied. 

It has been shown that the Mahometan, who has 
planted the tabernacle of his palace between the 
seas, in the glorious holy mountain, " shall come to 
his end" in the year 1897. Daniel was then in- 
formed that " Michael shall stand up for the chil- 
dren of thy people ;" and next, and immediately 
coincident with that, " there shall be a time of 
trouble," and this time of trouble will continue 
until the same people shall be delivered, which we 



TWELFTH CHAP TEE, TWELFTH VERSE. 147 

have shown, will be in the year 1942. Hence the 
inference is irresistible, that the time from the com- 
mencement to the end of the restoration will con- 
sume forty-five years ; and the time of trouble will 
have precisely the same coincident duration ; and 
during which, or more probably at the close of this 
momentous era, " many of them that sleep in the 
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting 
life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." 

It would appear probable, judging from the phra- 
seology above, that this is not the general resurrec- 
tion ; for not all, but many, shall awake, thus imply- 
ing that there are others who will not now awake. 

With a slight variation, which may be owing to 
some error in the translation, this seems to agree 
perfectly with the prediction, on the same theme, 
in the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse, where 
the first resurrection is distinctly announced, while 
we have the assurance that the rest of the dead 
lived not again, " until the thousand years were 
finished, ,, or until the close of the millennium. 

The scope of our argument does not allow of 
any protracted comment upon the subject of the 
second resurrection ; this lies altogether beyond 
what is called the Christian dispensation, at least 
so far as the revelation of Daniel extends, and, con- 
sequently, altogether beyond our assigned limits. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE CLOSE OF THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. 

AS Daniel probably comprehended the true 
meaning of these prophecies, when their lan- 
guage was merely repeated to him, no better than 
we should have done at that distant period, he says, 
that on hearing these solemn announcements, he 
understood not, and then exclaimed : " Oh ! my 
Lord, what shall be the end of these things ?" As 
the previous questions put by the prophet, or 
which he heard, differed essentially from each oth- 
er, so this one is entirely different, in substance, 
from any of the others. For while the others re- 
lated almost exclusively to time, this, on its face, 
made no allusion to time. " What shall be the end 
of these things ?" comprises very much more than 
they ; as not only time, but the closing scenes of 
all the amazing revelations unfolded to him, in 
vision, down to the end of the Christian dispensa- 
(i 4 8) 



CLOSE OF CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. 



149 



tion, are comprehended in this last question. He 
is now informed that his position, or character, as 
the prophet of God, ceases, and that no further 
vision will appear to him. " The words are closed 
up, and sealed till the time of the end." There will 
be no new r prophecy, on the matters which have 
been committed to Daniel, until their final accom- 
plishment. The angel nevertheless answers the 
prophet's question, before closing up the words, by 
giving him the assurance that from the time the 
daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abom- 
ination that maketh desolate set up, there shall 
be " one thousand two hundred and ninety (days) 
years." We remark here, that in this and the 
next verse he is giving to Daniel a summary, in 
few words, of all that has been communicated to 
him, through successive years, and in a variety of 
visions, all culminating in the same point, the final 
consummation of time, as connected with our pres- 
ent dispensation. And as, after the announcement 
of our Savior, the delivery of the saints into the 
hand of the antichristian power was the beginning 
of this series of prophecies, he takes that as his 
epoch from which he computes all these subse- 
quent events. We now approach the last and, to 
all Christians, the most interesting, but most diffi- 
cult to explain, of all the terms of years presented 



i5o 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



for our contemplation in this most wonderful rev- 
elation of Daniel. " Blessed is he that waiteth and 
cometh to the thousand three hundred and live 
and thirty (days) years." This period undoubt- 
edly commences at the same time as the last, and 
will consequently end forty-five years after that, 
or, as a corollary from our former argument, in the 
year 1942. It will be observed that the solemn 
oath of the angel extends down to the announce- 
ment of the " blessed" period; or the end of the 
time of our present dispensation. This calls forci- 
bly to our recollection a similar oath and parallel 
passage recorded in the Revelation, prescribing ex- 
actly the same result. In the tenth chapter: " The 
angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon 
the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware 
by him that liveth forever and ever, who created 
heaven and the things that therein are ; and the 
earth and the things that therein are ; and the sea 
and the things that are therein, that there should 
be time no longer, But in the days of the voice 
of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, 
the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath 
declared to his servants the prophets." 

In all the other cases of prescribed terms of 
time, some great event is foretold or recognized ; 
but here we are simply informed that he is " bless- 



CLOSE OF CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. 151 

ed" who cometh to the end of the prescribed time. 
We may therefore, with much confidence, conclude 
that the termination of this period will usher in the 
morning of the millennium. It now appears that 
the lapse of time between the commencement of the 
Hebrew restoration and this final consummation 
of the Christian dispensation will be forty -five 
years. And the inquiry presents itself, What will 
happen, in the course of Providence, during this 
intermediate period? Judging from the varied ref- 
erences to this specific time, in the Scriptures, our 
inference is that it must be a period of astonishing 
and most marvellous disclosures. 

In the first verse of the twelfth chapter we are 
told that immediately after the overthrow of the 
Mahometan power, "there shall be a time of 
trouble, such as there never was since there was a 
nation, even to that, same time." The connection 
of this paragraph with the preceding part of the 
same verse, and with the last verse of the preceding 
chapter, together with the concluding sentence of 
this same verse, shows conclusively, that this time 
of trouble will begin with the introduction of — or a 
preparation for — the restoration of the Jews in 
1897, and will continue during the subsequent 
forty-five years, until the " blessed " period, which 
begins in the year one thousand three hundred and 






152 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



five and thirty years after the constitution of Boni- 
face Universal Bishop in 607, and the commence- 
ment of Mahomet's ministry, that is, the year 1942. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

ADDITIONAL AND CORROBORATIVE PROOFS FROM 
OTHER SCRIPTURES. 

IT is now proposed further to elucidate some 
portions of this prophecy of Daniel, from other 
books of Scripture where reference is evidently 
made to the same subjects treated of by Daniel. 
In the sixteenth chapter of Revelation, in verses 
ten and eleven, we have an account of the pouring 
out of the fifth vial upon the seat of the beast. The 
occurrences which have taken place at Rome, in 
these times, going back to the year 1846, and so 
continuing down to the present day, are depicted 
with wonderful exactness in these two verses. As 
has been before shown, an effort was made by the 
Romans themselves to overthrow the papal govern- 
ment in 1846, which resulted in the expulsion of 
Pio Nono from Rome in 1847. The two verses re- 
ferred to are as follows : " And the fifth angel 

7* (*53) 



154 THE TIMES 0F DANIEL. 

poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; 
and his kingdom was full of darkness ; and they 
gnawed their tongues for pain ; and blasphemed the 
God of heaven, because of their pains and their 
sores, and repented not of their deeds." By way 
of illustration of these graphic descriptions, let us 
here look at an " Encyclical letter" from the Pope 
soon after these disturbances : " To the Patriarchs, 
Primates, Archbishops and Bishops in communion 
with the Holy See : Venerable Brethren, The sedi- 
tious movements which have lately broken out in 
Italy against the authority of legitimate princes, in 
countries nearest to the States of the Church, have 
invaded some of our provinces like the flames of a 
conflagration. Excited by this fatal example, and 
by intrigues abroad, they have thrown off our pa- 
ternal rule, and in spite of their small numbers, the 
adherents of the revolt demand that they shall be 
subjected to that one of the Italian governments 
which of late years has been the adversary of the 
church, of its legitimate rights and of its sacred 
ministers. * Reproving and deploring the acts of 
rebellion, by which a portion only of the people in 
those disturbed provinces disregard with so much 
injustice our zeal and our paternal care, and declar- 
ing publicly that the temporal sovereignty, which 
the most perfidious enemies of the church of Christ 



PROOFS FROM OTHER SCRIPTURES. 155 

are endeavoring to wrest from it, is necessary to 
the Holy See, in order that it may exercise, with- 
out any obstacle, its sacred power for the welfare 
of religion, we address you, Venerable Brethren, 
this present letter, in order to seek in the midst of 
such serious disturbances of public peace, some con- 
solation for our sorrow. On this occasion we ex- 
hort you to see to the accomplishment of the pre- 
scription, which we read was formerly given by 
Moses to Aaron, the sovereign pontiff of the He- 
brews : Take a censer and put fire therein from off 
the altar, and put on incense and go quickly unto 
the congregation and make an atonement for them, 
for titer e is wrath gone out from the Lord, the plague 

is begun Moreover, we solemnly declare that, 

possessed of the power from above which God, 
moved by the prayers of the faithful, will confer on 
our weakness, w^e will brave all perils and undergo 
all trials, sooner than fail in any respect in our apos- 
tolic duty, or do anything whatever against the 
sanctity of the oath by which we bound ourselves, 
when we were raised by God's will to the supreme 
seat of the Prince of the Apostles." In this the 
pontiff declares that the plague has begun ; and 
then it equally appears that he repented not of his 
deeds. 

Hereupon the sixth angel poured out his vial 



156 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

upon the great river Euphrates ; and the water 
thereof was dried up, "that the way of the kings of 
the east might be prepared." It has been herein 
before shown how the Mahometan power " shall 
come to his end, and none shall help him" — that is to 
say, shall gradually waste away, and in due time be 
totally annihilated, in accordance with the proph- 
ecy of Daniel ; so now here the very same thing is 
foreshadowed in the Revelation, under the type of 
the river Euphrates being dried up, and in imme- 
diate proximity, following in both cases the de- 
struction of antichrist. No one can reasonably 
doubt the reference, both in Daniel and St. John, to 
the same occurrences. It admits of more doubt 
precisely what is intended by "the way of the 
kings of the east being prepared." It is suggested 
whether, by the "kings of the east," in this place 
is not meant the chosen people of God ; and if so, 
the drying up of the Mahometan despotism would 
surely prepare the way for their return to their 
own land. In behalf of the above suggestion, it 
may be argued with great force that we should 
give to the language of a writer, as near as possible, 
the same meaning in one paragraph which is its 
obvious meaning in another. Proceeding upon 
this principle, we look back to the first chapter of 
the Apocalypse, and, commencing with the fifth 



PROOFS FROM OTHER SCRIPTURES. 157 

verse, we read, " And from Jesus Christ, who is the 
faithful witness, and the first begotten from the 
dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto 
him that loved us, and washed- us from our sins in 
his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
unto God." That the word kings is not used here 
in its common, secular acceptation is very apparent ; 
and it is almost equally apparent that its use in the 
above sense would justify its application to the 
regenerated Jews, on their return to the Holy Land. 
Now it will be borne 111 mind that Daniel de- 
clares, that immediately after the dissolution of the 
Mahometan power, and, indeed, linked to it, " there 
shall be a time of trouble such as never was 'since 
there was a nation, even to that same time.'' So 
here, in the Apocalypse, the very next event fore- 
told, as following the drying up of the Euphrates, 
and as a part of the same vial, the Revelator says : 
" I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of 
the mouth of the Dragon, and out of the mouth of 
the Beast, and out of the mouth of the False Pro- 
phet ;" and in the sixteenth verse, " He gathered 
them together into a place called in the Hebrew 
tongue, Armageddon. " And then the seventh angel 
poured out his vial into the air ; and there came a 
great voice out of the temple of Heaven from the 
throne, saying, " It is done." And then comes on 



158 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

precisely the time of trouble mentioned more 
briefly by Daniel : " There were voices, and thun- 
derings, and lightnings ; and there was a great 
earthquake, such as there was not since men were 
upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so 
great." " And the cities of the nations fell ; and 
great Babylon came in remembrance before God, 
to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierce- 
ness of his wrath." " And there fell upon men a 
great hail out of heaven, every stone about the 
weight of a talent : and men blasphemed God be- 
cause of the plague of the hail ; for the plague 
thereof was exceeding great." This account ap- 
pears perfectly to corroborate the same events fore- 
told by Daniel, ages before it was written by St. 
John in the Island of Patmos. Yet it is given here in 
language, and even in ideas so totally different, as to 
remove all suspicion that he was in any way copy- 
ing from the predictions of the earlier prophets. 
We may also quote here, as an authority, corre- 
sponding to the prophecy of the same terrible 
woes, from our Savior, in explaining certain ques- 
tions put by the apostles, of which more will be 
said hereafter. " Immediately after the tribulation 
of those days, shall the sun be darkened and the 
moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall 
fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens 



PROOFS FROM OTHER SCRIPTURES. 159 

shall be shaken ; and then shall appear the sign of 
the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the 
tribes of the earth mourn." This most evidently 
relates to the same subject, and agrees with both 
Daniel and the Apocalypse, in the substance of the 
prophecy. These days of tribulation are alluded 
to, or described by nearly all the prophets, in lan- 
guage at once varied and most impressive. In the 
seventh chapter of Daniel the prophet is shown at 
one glance, the close of the amazing scenes de- 
picted in all his visions : " I beheld," says he, "till 
the thrones were set, and the Ancient of days did 
sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the 
hair of his head like pure wool ; his throne was 
the fiery flame, and his wheels burning fire. A 
fiery stream issued and came forth from before 
him : thousand thousands ministered unto him, and 
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him ; 
the judgment was set, and the books were opened. 
I beheld, even till the beast was slain, and his body 
destroyed and given to the burning flame." 

In Zechariah, 12th, 13th, and 14th chapters, 
we have a graphic narration, not only of the sor- 
rows and tribulations to which the people will be 
subjected ; but also an affecting account of the ap- 
pearance of our Savior among his people, and of 
the happy influences his presence will have upon 



l6o THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

them. " Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of 
trembling unto all the people round about, when 
they shall be in the siege both against Judah and 
against Jerusalem, and in that day will I make Je- 
rusalem a burdensome stone for all people. All 
that burden themselves with it shall be cut in 
pieces, though all the people of the earth be gath- 
ered together against it. In that day, saith the 
Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment 
and his rider with madness." " In that day will I 
make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire 
among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, 
and they shall devour all the people round about, 
on the right hand and on the left. And Jerusalem 
shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in 
Jerusalem. In that day shall the Lord defend the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem ; and he that is feeble 
among them, at that day shall be as David. And 
it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to 
destroy all the nations that come against Jerusa- 
lem. And I will pour upon the house of David, 
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit 
of grace and of supplication ; and they shall look 
upon me whom they have pierced ; and they shall 
mourn for him as one that mourneth for his only 
son ; and shall be in bitterness for him as one is in 
bitterness for his first-born." 



PBOOFS FROM OTIIEB SCRIPTURES. 161 

So, too, the same thing is strikingly presented 
in Joel, second chapter : " Blow ye the trumpet in 
Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain : 
let all the inhabitants of the land tremble : for 
the day of the Lord cometh, it is nigh at hand : 
a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of 
clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning 
spread upon the mountains ; a great people and 
a strong : a fire devoureth before them, and be- 
hind them a flame burneth : the land is as the gar- 
den of Eden before them ; and behind them a deso- 
late wilderness ; yea, and nothing shall escape them. 
Before their faces the people shall be much pained, 
the earth shall quake before them : the heavens 
shall tremble. The sun and moon shall be dark, 
and the stars shall withdraw their shining. And 
the Lord shall utter his voice before his army, for 
his camp is very great ; for he is strong and exe- 
cuteth his word ; for the day of the Lord is great 
and very terrible, and who can abide it ? And I 
will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, 
blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall 
be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, 
before the great and terrible day of the Lord 
come." " Let the nations be wakened and come 
up to the valley of Jehosaphat ; for there will I sit 
to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in 



1 62 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



the sickle for the harvest is ripe. Come, get you 
down, for the press is full, for the fats overflow : 
for their wickedness is great : the sun and the 
moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall with- 
draw their shining. " 

We add another like description from the nine- 
teenth chapter of Revelations : " And I saw heaven 
opened, and behold a white horse, and he that sat 
upon him was called Faithful and True ; and in 
righteousness doth he judge and make war ; and 
his eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head 
were many crowns ; and he had a name written that 
no man knew but himself. And he was clothed with 
a vesture dipped in blood ; and his name is called 
the Word of God. And the armies which were 
in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed 
in linen white and clean. And out of his mouth 
goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite 
the nations : and he shall rule them with a rod of 
iron. And he treadeth the winepress of the fierce- 
ness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath 
on his vesture and on his thigh a name written 
King of kings and Lord of lords. And I saw an 
angel standing in the sun : and he cried with a 
loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the 
midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves to- 
gether unto the supper of the great God, that ye 







PROOFS FROM OTHER SCRIPTURES. 163 

may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, 
and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses 
and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all 
men. And I saw the beast and the kings of the 
earth, and their armies gathered together to make 
war against him that sat on the horse and against 
his army. And the beast was taken, and with him 
the false prophet, that wrought miracles before 
him, with which he deceived them that had re- 
ceived the mark of the beast, and them that wor- 
shiped his image : these were both cast alive into 
the lake of fire, burning with brimstone. And the 
remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat 
upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his 
mouth." 

An explanation of the various symbols used in 
this and other passages, does not fall within flie 
scope of this argument. It is sufficient for my pur- 
pose to know that they foreshadow unspeakable 
woes, and are quoted only to illustrate the short 
paragraph from Daniel, " There shall be a time of 
trouble such as never was since there was a nation, 
even to that time." The word here rendered " trou- 
ble," really has a much more intensified significa- 
tion in the original. Its first and most proper 
meaning is " throwing" or " dashing to the ground," 
and while there will be " troubles" such as have 



1 64 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

never before been, individually, witnessed among 
men, in addition to that, the whole fabric of society 
will be dashed to atoms ; of which more will be 
found in the subsequent chapter, 










CHAPTER XX. 

SECOND PETER, THIRD CHAPTER, TENTH VERSE. 

IT is now proposed to examine a passage in the 
second Epistle of Peter, in the third chapter, 
which is manifestly only another phase of the same 
terrific consummation, and which seems to have 
been greatly misunderstood. The passage espe- 
cially referred to is the tenth verse, " But the day 
of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the 
which, the heavens shall pass away with a great 
noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
heat, the earth also and the works that are therein 
shall be burned up." Before any comments are 
made upon this passage, it will be proper to give 
some of the opinions heretofore entertained of it. 
The very judicious Mr. Scott says : " At that im- 
portant catastrophe, the heavens and all the host 
of them, (so far at least as connected with this earth 
and its inhabitants,) will pass away and rush into 

(165) 



1 66 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

confusion and destruction with a tremendous noise, 
of which thunder, earthquakes and all other con- 
vulsions of nature are wholly inadequate to give 
the least conception. Then all the elements of 
which the earth and its atmosphere, and all the lu- 
minaries connected with it, are composed, shall 
melt with intense heat.' , He has much more of 
the same complexion, but this will suffice. The 
good Doctor Doddridge takes a similar view, but 
expresses it very briefly : " The elements of which 
this goodly frame of nature is composed, being set 
on fire, shall be dissolved, and the earth and all its 
works shall be burnt up, so that none of the orna- 
ments of nature or of art shall any longer continue ; 
but the whole shall be one undistinguished heap 
of smoking desolation/' The excellent Matthew 
Henry treats of it in much the same style, though 
he seems to yerge somewhat nearer towards what 
must be the true meaning. One commentator says 
the visible heavens will pass away " with a great 
whiz." Another calls it " the hissing sound of a 
dart passing through the air ; the flight of birds ; 
the soft motion of the winds ; the running of a 
chariot ; the rolling of an impetuous torrent ; the 
noise of soldiers running to battle ; the crackling 
of a wide-spread fire ; the rushing sound of a vio- 
lent storm or tempest." Another remarks of the 






2 PETER 3 : 10. 1 67 

"elements," some say "air," others, "the stars." 
One refers it ("elements") to the heavens, which 
goes before, and explains it of the electric matter, 
sulphurous vapors, and whatever floats in the air, 
together with the air itself." Another says, " Sup- 
pose the earth, air and water shall be subdued by 
the prevalence of fire ; and their stamina or first 
constituent principles quite altered thereby ; then 
it may very properly be said, the elements being on 
fire shall be dissolved or melted!'' These quotations 
are sufficient to show the vieAvs which have almost 
or quite universally been entertained of the mean- 
ing of this passage in Peter. They are altogether 
of a literal character. For a layman to offer an 
opinion against such authorities may seem very 
presumptuous, but the conviction cannot be re- 
moved that a much more satisfactory and momen- 
tous significance belongs to the passage. As this 
prediction of Peter undoubtedly refers to the same 
sublime and fearful tragedy, often repeated under 
various symbolical forms, in the Scriptures, we 
will endeavor to ascertain here the meaning of 
certain symbols used in the prophecy. In the 
eighteenth verse of the sixteenth chapter of the 
Revelation, while recounting the troubles to occur 
in the period between the commencement of the 
Restoration of the Jews and the close of the forty- 



1 68 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

five years, among other things mentioned, the Rev- 
elator says, " there was a great earthquake, such as 
was not since men were upon the earth." It may 
be presumed that few would give the word " earth- 
quake" its literal signification, and suppose it meant 
a shaking of the physical globe; such a notion 
would hardly be consistent with the context or 
with the general matter of the Revelation. " Earth- 
quake," in the symbolical language of Scripture, is 
by all commentators defined to signify some great 
civil or religious convulsion. Mr. Faber has it, 
" An earthquake is a sudden convulsion in an em- 
pire, violently oversetting the existing order of 
things." We must then understand, by this tre- 
mendous earthquake, such as was not known since 
men were upon the earth, the greatest possible rev- 
olution in the whole fabric of human society. There 
are other symbols as striking and impressive as 
this, such as, "the sun shall be darkened," "the 
moon turned into blood," and the like, all doubtless 
referring to the same fearful event ; but this one is 
sufficient for our present purpose. 

We begin our inquiries, then, as to the true 
meaning of the passage under consideration, with 
the knowledge that such a stupendous revolution 
is to happen at the time referred to by the apostle ; 
a revolution subverting all the civil and religious 



2 PETER 3:10. 169 

governments in the world. We must also under- 
stand the fact, which seems to have been over- 
looked by all who have written on the subject, that 
this passage of Peter, namely, is as absolutely a 
prophecy as that of Daniel or Saint John. " In 
the which the heavens shall pass away with a great 
noise. ,, In prophecy, then, what is the true mean- 
ing of " heavens/' as a symbol ? Sir Isaac Newton 
has given a catalogue of symbols, with their inter- 
pretations. From him we learn that " the symbol- 
ical heaven comprehends the sun, the moon, and 
the stars. In the language of symbols, the sun of 
a kingdom is the government of that kingdom." 
There is no known difference of opinion among stu- 
dents on this matter. But if " heaven," in symbol- 
ical language, signifies the government of a king- 
dom, or, by parity of reason, any other govern- 
ment, then, most assuredly, "the heavens," applied 
in the same way, comprehends something more 
than one government. In the case before us, the 
apostle has evidently been discoursing, not of any 
particular government or country, but of the in- 
terests of all mankind. It therefore seems to be a 
necessary sequence, that in using the term "the 
heavens" prophetically here, he intended to apply 
it, and did so apply it, to represent all the govern- 
ments of the world. This being conceded, we read 
8 



I ;o THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

the passage thus : " After terrible convulsions the 
governments of the world will be subverted and 
pass away," for what purpose and to what end we 
shall see in the sequel. 

" And the elements shall melt with fervent heat." 
While it is easy to show that this proposition is 
usually misunderstood, it may be readily admitted 
that its true meaning is more obscure than the 
former, and admits of more doubt of its exact sig- 
nification. While it is clear that the " heavens " in 
the other case has no allusion to the visible firma- 
ment ; so no more has the word " elements " any 
relation to what was formerly supposed to be the 
simple physical constituents of this world — earth, 
air, fire and water. The Greek word here trans- 
lated " elements," is stoicheia. This word is used 
in the epistles six times. In Galatians, 4th chap- 
ter and 3d verse, " Even so we when we were chil- 
dren were in bondage under the elements of the 
world." And in the 9th verse of the same chapter, 
" But that now, after that ye have known God, or 
rather are known of God, how turn ye again to 
the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye de- 
sire again to be in bondage." Now, whatever any 
may suppose the true meaning, none can affirm 
that the word here translated elements, really means 
the properties of physical nature. 



2 PETER 3:10. 



171 



Another place where the same word is used is 
Colossians, 2d chapter and 8th verse, " Beware 
lest any man spoil you, through philosophy or 
vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the 
rudiments of the world, and not after Christ/' And 
in the 20th verse of the same chapter, "Wherefore, 
if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the 
world, why as though living in the world are 
ye subject to ordinances (touch not, taste not, han- 
dle not, which all are to perish in the using), after 
the commandment and doctrines of men ?" Here 
it seems quite as apparent that the same Greek 
word translated " rudiments," does not refer in any 
manner to the physical elements of our earth. The 
same Greek word is found in the 5th chapter of 
Hebrews, 12th verse, where it is translated " prin- 
ciples " — " Ye have need that one teach you again 
which be the first principles of the oracles of God." 
We may then inquire, with some degree of curios- 
ity, why, in the only other place where the word 
is used, that now under consideration, it should 
have a popular meaning assigned to it so totally 
different from what it receives in every other place 
where it is used ? It might be surmised, only to 
be in keeping with the popular understanding of 
the preceding sentence. For if the visible heavens, 
whatever might be understood by the term, were 



172 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

to pass away " with a great whiz/' why should not 
also the " elements " of which the solid earth is 
composed, and all its surroundings, be melted with 
fervent heat ? In two of the cases cited above from 
the epistles, the word stoicheia evidently means re- 
ligious ordinances or ritualistic ceremonies. In the 
others it has a meaning somewhat different. It is 
translated " principles/' " elements/' or " beggarly 
elements " " of the world, whereunto ye desire again 
to be in bondage." As no one could desire to be in 
bondage to the four physical elements, we must 
look further for the signification here. The " ele- 
ments," or " beggarly elements," in this place doubt- 
less refer to those worldly attractions of wealth, 
pleasure, etc., to which the children of this world 
are liable to be inordinately attached, and by which 
to be destroyed. It is quite possible that both 
these meanings are here included in the word 
" elements." But for the sake of simplicity, we 
confine our view of it to religious ordinances and 
ritualistic ceremonies in their ecclesiastical aspect. 
The proper meaning of the Greek word translated 
" shall melt," is " loosed," " unloosed," or " dis- 
charged," and it may with perfect propriety be 
rendered " abrogated." The word rendered " fer- 
vent heat," is more difficult of explanation. It 
means " being inflamed " or " excited," and may 



2 PETER 3 : 10. 



173 



be used in a moral as well as a physical sense. In 
construing the sentence, the only difficulty seems 
to be that we have to give an active sense to an 
inactive subject. Ceremonies and ordinances could 
not with propriety be said to be inflamed ; and as 
the word appears to be used only for intensifying 
the sense, we may omit it, leaving the phrase to 
read, " all human ordinances, ritualisms and legal 
ceremonies shall be abrogated. " The other clause 
in the verse rjads, " The earth also, and the works 
that are therein shall be burned up." " The earth," 
according to Sir Isaac Newton, when taken in a 
temporal sense, imports, in the abstract, the terri- 
torial dominions of any Pagan or irreligious em- 
pire." " In a spiritual sense, a state of Paganism 
or apostacy." This is unquestionably its general 
meaning. In the 46th Psalm, the sixth verse, we 
have, " The heathen raged, the kingdoms were 
moved : He uttered his voice, the earth melted." 
Here we have not only the meaning of the word 
" earth" but also an opportunity to form a definite 
appreciation of the word " melt," as used in this 
connection. It can be, so far as appears, applied 
only to the destruction of the heathen. In the 
10th Psalm, 1 8th verse, we find, "To judge the 
fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the 
6 earth ' may no more oppress." In a broad sense 



174 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

then, the " earth " symbolically includes all who 
are at enmity with God. The phrase, " shall be 
burnt up," may with equal propriety be translated, 
" shall be consumed." The whole paragraph would 
then read, " All the enemies of God shall be con- 
sumed." This construction seems to be fully sup- 
ported by various passages of Scripture. Malachi 
in the fourth chapter says : " Behold, the day Com- 
eth that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, 
yea, and all they that do wickedly, sh^ll be stubble ; 
and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith 
the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither 
root nor branch," " And ye shall tread down the 
wicked ; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your 
feet, in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord 
of Hosts." There can, then, be no reasonable 
doubt that this whole passage is a figurative de- 
scription in glowing colors of the same time of 
trouble mentioned by Daniel, resulting in the sub- 
version of all secular governments, the eradication 
of all ritualistic ceremonies and ordinances, the 
overthrow of all ecclesiastical domination, and 
the utter destruction of the wicked, who shall, at 
the given time, be upon the earth. With a like 
purport a passage may be cited from the Revela- 
tion, applicable to the same time ;^ that is, the final 
close of our present dispensation : " And the beast 



2 PETER 3 : 10. 



175 



was taken, and with him the false prophet that 
wrought miracles before him, with which he de- 
ceived them that had received the mark of the 
beast, and them that had worshiped his image. 
These were both cast into a lake of fire, burning 
with brimstone. " 

If the view of this passage in Peter, thus pre- 
sented, be correct, then the whole paragraph will 
read as follows : " The day of the Lord will come 
as a thief in the night, in the which, in the midst of 
terrific convulsions, the governments of the world 
shall all be subverted, and pass away ; legal ordi- 
nances and ritualistic ceremonies shall be abro- 
gated, ecclesiastical tyranny abolished, and all the 
enemies of God shall be consumed. ,, " Neverthe- 
less we, according to his promise, look for new 
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth right- 
eousness. ,, So says Peter, and in almost the same 
words says the Revelator : " I saw a new heaven 
and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first 
earth were passed away, and there was no more 
sea." " The sea," we are again informed on the 
authority of Newton, " ever turbulent and restless, 
represents nations in a tumultuous and revolution- 
ary state." " And I, John, saw the Holy City, New 
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, 
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And 



176 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Be- 
hold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he 
will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, 
and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 
And he ... . showed me that great city, the holy 
Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 
having the glory of God." " And I saw no temple 
therein : for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb 
are the temple of it." Such, then, seem to be the 
amazing scenes which are to be enacted upon our 
earth during and immediately after the time of 
" trouble such as there never was since there was 
a nation." 



CHAPTER XXL 

CHRIST'S ANSWER TO HIS DISCIPLES. 

WE now turn to the twenty-fourth chapter 
of Matthew, recording the answer of our 
Savior to certain questions of his disciples, relat- 
ing among other things, principally to his own sec- 
ond coming and the end of the world. 

" Jesus said to his disciples, See ye not all these 
things ? Verily, I say unto you, there shall not be 
left one stone upon another, that shall not be 
thrown down." "And as he sat upon the Mount 
of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, 
saying, Tell us, when shall these things be ? and 
what shall be the sign of thy coming ? and of the 
end of the world ?" Or, as it is in the original, 
"the consummation of time." Here were three 
distinct questions proposed, which, it would seem, 
the disciples confounded together, at least, as to 
time. The first related to the temple ; the second, 
8* (177) 



178 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

to Christ ; and the third, to the end of our present 
dispensation. All these questions were -answered 
separately, distinctly and in a manner that admit- 
ted of no doubtful construction. Though they are 
not answered seriatim,, an examination of them shall 
be in the order in which they are proposed. While 
looking about Jerusalem, and at the temple, Jesus 
had told them that " not one stone should be left 
upon another, that should not be thrown down." 
Their first question related back to this statement, 
" When shall these things be ?" In the fifteenth 
verse of the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, 
our Savior undoubtedly answers this question : 
" When ye therefore shall see the abomination of 
desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand 
in the holy place, then let them which be in Judea 
flee into the mountains." 

We now turn back to Daniel to ascertain to 
what our Lord refers. We there find several para- 
graphs in different places, in the prophecy, em- 
bodying nearly the same idea or fact. At pres- 
ent we have only to do with one of them. We 
have endeavored in a former chapter to show that 
the " transgression of desolation," mentioned in the 
thirteenth verse of the eighth chapter, refers to oc- 
currences which did not take place until centuries 
after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. To 



CHRIST'S ANSWER TO HIS DISCIPLES. 179 

what, then, does our Lord refer in his quotation 
in this conversation with his disciples ? It will be 
remembered that in the ninth chapter, Daniel re- 
cords a vision, showing forth the time of the com- 
ing of the Saviour and of his ministry, and then 
says : u After threescore and two weeks shall Mes- 
siah be cut off, but not for himself: And the people 
of the Prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and 
the sanctuary. And the end thereof shall be with a 
flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are 
determined. " " And for the overspreading of aboini- 
nations, he shall make it desolate, even until the con- 
summation shall be poured upon the desolate!' It 
will be perceived that the desolation here spoken 
of immediately follows, in the same vision, the com- 
ing, ministry and death of our Lord, and thence 
may well be presumed to allude to the terrible oc- 
currences to take place immediately thereafter. 
And to this our Lord undoubtedly refers. In an- 
swer therefore to the first question, he cites this 
prophecy, and warns them, that when they shall 
see this abomination of desolation, they must ex- 
pect to witness the fulfillment of his prediction, 
that there shall not be left one stone upon another ; 
undoubtedly referring to the desolation brought 
upon Jerusalem, by the army of Titus ; and after- 
wards of Adrian. " In the second year of the reign 



180 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

of Vespatian, A. d. 70, the city of Jerusalem fell into 
the hands of Titus. It was then given up to be 
plundered by the soldiers, and most of the inhabi- 
tants were put to the sword. In conformity to the 
orders of Titus, the city was destroyed to its foun- 
dations ; and even the ruins of the temple were 
demolished. A plowshare, it is said, was drawn 
over the consecrated ground, as a sign of perpet- 
ual interdiction." Subsequently many Jews re- 
turned, and rebuilt some parts of the city ; but " in 
process of time the Jews incensed Adrian, by their 
turbulent disposition, and he resolved to level the 
city of Jerusalem with the ground, that is, those 
buildings which the Jews had erected, to destroy 
those towers that were left by Titus," "and to sow 
salt on the ground on which the city had stood. 
Thus did Titus and Adrian, whatever were their 
motives, literally fulfill the prediction of our Sav- 
ior, that neither in the city nor in the temple, 
should one stone be left upon another." This is a 
full, definite and perfect answer to the first ques- 
tion of the disciples. 

The second question propounded by them was. 
" What shall be the sign of thy coming ?" The com- 
ments upon the answer to the first question, by our 
Lord, are continued to the close of the twenty- 
second verse. Afterwards, he discourses upon the 






CHRIST'S ANSWER TO HIS DISCIPLES. 181 

same subject, but to a more remote period. " Then," 
which would be much better, more easily under- 
stood, and equally correct, " Thereafter, or " After 
that," if any man shall say unto you, Lo ! here is 
Christ ; or Lo ! there : believe it not : For there 
shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and 
shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, 
if it were possible, they shall deceive the very 
elect." In the same conversation, as recorded by 
Luke, he says : " They," the people of Jerusalem, 
at the desolation of Titus, " shall fall by the edge of 
the sword, and shall be led away captive into all na- 
tions ;" and then his discourse proceeds, as evidently 
before, probably intentionally, without much regard 
to order or system to the history of Jerusalem at 
a later period. " And Jerusalem shall be trodden 
down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles 
shall be fulfilled." This, as has been shown, in a for- 
mer chapter, refers to the possession of Palestine 
by the Saracens and Turks ; and now, reverting to 
the question of the disciples, " What shall be the 
sign of thy coming?" and also recollecting the 
terrible scourges which are to fall upon our race 
during the forty-five years predicted by Daniel, 
He says : " There shall be signs in the sun, and in 
the moon, and in the stars ; and upon the earth, dis- 
tress of nations ; men's hearts failing them for fear, 



1 82 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

and for looking after those things which are com- 
ing on the earth ; for the powers of heaven shall be 
shaken," exactly corresponding with what has be- 
fore been said in the third chapter of the second of 
Peter: "And then" (that is, afterwards,) "shall ap- 
pear the sign of the Son of man in heaven ; and then 
shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they 
shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of 
heaven, with power and great glory." Could he 
have made his answer more clear and intelligible, 
unless, indeed, he had gone beyond the disciples' 
inquiry, and given the day and year of our era of 
his actual appearance ? 

We now come to the third and last question, 
" What " [shall be the sign] " of the end of the 
world?" or more properly, "the consummation of 
time." His answer to this is as brief and explicit 
as it well could be. " This gospel of the kingdom 
shall be preached in all the world as a witness to 
all nations ; and then shall the end come." No 
stronger argument for missions to the heathen can 
be adduced than is comprised in this short sen- 
tence. Here Ave are informed, by an authority 
which cannot be disputed, that there has not been 
an age since he lived in which it was not abso- 
lutely at the will of the Christians of the existing 
generation to bring about the end of the world or 



CHRIST'S ANSWER TO HIS DISCIPLES. 183 

the close of our dispensation. But on this point 
all Christians appear, until a few years, to have 
been thoughtless in the extreme, making no, or 
very little, effort to fulfill Christ's last command to 
go into all the world and preach the gospel. The 
desire to convert mankind is doubtless a strong im- 
pelling motive and a very powerful one to prose- 
cute foreign missions. But if this were the only 
one, there would be room for discouragement. 
The efforts of the most self-denying and laborious 
ministers may be futile. Missionaries have been 
known to preach for nearly twenty years without 
a convert; and if we cast a look over Christian 
countries, we see so small a part of the existing 
population evangelically pious, that the most de- 
termined zeal might flag if the conversion of the 
world was the end required by God. But there is 
no such command given here. Christ's injunction 
upon his disciples is imperative, to go into all the 
world and preach the gospel. And then here he 
solemnly affirms that " this gospel of the kingdom 
shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all 
nations. And this is all. We are not to wait a 
single day for the conversion of the world. " Then 
shall the end come." The command and the prom- 
ise are equally obligatory and full, even if a single 
heathen had never been or never should be con- 



1 84 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

verted ; and whether one shall ever be converted or 
not, every Christian is bound by the most solemn 
obligations to labor to effect this end — the procla- 
mation of the gospel to all nations. So far as the 
effect is concerned, our duty being done, we have 
no responsibility. That the preaching of the gos- 
pel will not be altogether successful, we may well 
infer from the intimation everywhere given in 
Scripture, that at the great day of the Lord, im- 
mense numbers will still be his enemies, and will 
be turned into hell. 

" This generation, " says our Savior, " shall not 
pass till all these things be fulfilled. " The word 
" generation" as used here, has occasioned a good 
deal of doubt and difficulty, which .might easily 
have been removed. It has largely been under- 
stood as only meaning an ordinary age of man, 
while the original word, although correctly trans- 
lated " generation," ordinarily, yet may, with per- 
fect propriety, in this place be " dispensation" — the 
word meaning " an age," in its largest sense, as 
the " golden age," the " age of chivalry," etc. ; so 
the paragraph should read : " This dispensation 
shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." 

Speaking of the same amazing occurrences, just 
recited by our Lord, the prophet Joel in the sec- 
ond chapter and tenth verse, says : " The earth shall 



CHBIST'S ANSWER TO HIS DISCIPLES. 185 

quake before them ; the heavens shall tremble ; the 
sun and moon shall be dark; and the stars shall 
withdraw their shining ; and the Lord shall utter 
his voice before his army; for his camp is very 
great ; for he is strong that executeth his words ; 
for the day of the Lord is very terrible, and who 
can abide it?" 

So in the thirtieth verse, " And I will show won- 
ders in the heavens, and in the earth, blood and fire 
and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into 
darkness and the moon into blood, before the great 
and terrible day of the Lord come." So in the 
gospel according to Mark, thirteenth chapter and 
twenty-fourth verse, we have the same conversa- 
tion of Christ with his disciples as quoted from 
Matthew, varying somewhat in phraseology : " But 
in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall 
be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, 
and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers 
that are in heaven shall be shaken. " And to the 
same purport is the statement in the sixth chapter 
of the Revelation, from the twelfth to the seven- 
teenth verse, inclusive. Recurring again to the 
explanation of the Scriptural symbols we find, " the 
symbolical heaven, when interpreted temporally, 
signifies the whole body politic. As such it com- 
prehends the sun, or the sovereign power, whereso- 



1 86 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

ever it be lodged ; the moon, or the people, which 
is the allegorical wife of the sovereign power, and 
the stars, or the princes and nobles of the realm. " 
" Such being the case, the blackening of the sun, 
the turning the moon into blood, the falling of the 
stars and the departing of the heavens like a scroll, 
will mean either the subversion of a kingdom or 
the subversion of an empire, according as the tenor 
of the prophecy shall require." A consideration 
of all these prophecies brings us to the conclusion 
that there will be a period, according to Daniel, of 
forty-five years, in which — and in this he is cor- 
roborated by numerous other prophecies — there 
will be a condition of the world involving unexam- 
pled tumults and convulsions, with unspeakable 
tribulations ; that immediately after these troubles 
shall have passed, and consequent upon them, all 
the governments of the world, s.ecular and ecclesi- 
astical, will be subverted and extinguished, and all 
the enemies of God consumed ; and all this, that 
the whole earth may be purified as by fire, and the 
new Jerusalem prepared for a reign of righteous- 
ness, when the tabernacle of God shall be with 
men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall 
be his people, and the throne of God and the Lamb 
shall be in it." " And He that sitteth on the throne 
shall dwell among them" 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE COMING OF OUR LORD. 

WE now approach the consummation and 
glorious climacteric of God's Christian 
dispensation to men. While Christ himself tells 
us that immediately after those tribulations the 
sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give 
her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, the 
prophet Joel says what might seem, at first sight, 
contradictory ; namely, that "the sun shall be turned 
into darkness and the moon into blood, before the 
great and terrible day of the Lord come." This 
is, however, in perfect consistency with all the 
events so minutely and graphically recorded. 

First come the forty-five years of trouble, such 
as has not been known since men inhabited our 
world. Then in the order of events follows the 
subversion of the whole fabric of society, civil and 
ecclesiastical. "And then," says our Savior, in 

(187) 



1 88 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

the 30th verse of the 24th chapter of Matthew, 
" and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man 
in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth 
mourn : and they shall see the Son of man coming 
in the clouds of heaven, with power and great 
glory : and he shall send his angels with a great 
sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together 
his elect from the four winds, from one end of 
heaven to the other." In the second of Thessalo- 
nians, first chapter and 7th and 8th verses : " The 
Loi;d Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his 
mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on 
them thg.t know not God and obey not the gospel 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. ,, It will be seen from 
these quotations, that while Joel in his prophecy 
refers to the terrible tribulations which precede the 
coming of our Savior, and desolate the world for 
the period of forty-five years, our Savior in his 
discourse refers to the equally, and, perhaps, still 
more, awful woes, which succeed his coming : the 
first relating more particularly to the tumults and 
convulsions of a secular nature, while the last evi- 
dently relates to the judgment of Christ, taking 
vengeance on those who know not God. 

The whole of this scene of tribulation and sor- 
row and anguish, simultaneously with the coming 
of our Lord, is strikingly presented to us in the 



THE COMING OF OUR LOBD. 189 

6th chapter of Revelation, verses 12th to the end 
of the chapter, inclusive : " And I beheld when he 
had opened the sixth seal, and lo ! there was a 
great earthquake, and the sun became black as 
sackcloth of hair; and the moon became as blood; 
and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, even as 
a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is 
shaken of a mighty wind ; and the heaven departed 
as a scroll when it its rolled together ; and every 
mountain and island were removed out of their 
places ; and the kings of the earth, and the great 
men and the rich men, and the chief captains, and 
the mighty men^ and every bondman and every 
freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the 
rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains 
and the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face 
of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the 
wrath of the lamb, for the great day of his wrath 
is come, and who shall be able to stand?" 

The coming of our Lord is further exemplified 
by St. Paul in his first epistle to the Thessalonians, 
the 4th chapter and 15th verse : " For this we say 
unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are 
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, 
shall not prevent them which are asleep." " For 
(at this eventful period) the Lord himself shall de- 
scend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of 



I go THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

the archangel, and with the trump of God, and 
the dead in Christ shall rise first. ,, 

In the minds of many the second appearance of 
our Lord has not only been questioned, but has 
become apocryphal. In addition to the unanswer- 
able inference from what has been already written, 
several more passages from the books of the New 
Testament may be cited. In the 27th verse of the 
24th chapter of Matthew, our Lord himself says : 
" For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and 
shineth even unto the west, so shall also the com- 
ing of the Son of man be." And in the 25th chap- 
ter and 31st verse, "When the Son of man shall 
come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, 
then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and 
before him shall be gathered all the nations, and 
he shall separate them one from another, as a shep- 
herd divideth his sheep from the goats." In the 
Acts of the Apostles, in the 9th verse of the 1st 
chapter, we are told that while the apostles beheld, 
" he was taken up, and a cloud received him out 
of their sight," "and while they looked steadfastly 
towards heaven as he went up, two men stood by 
them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of 
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? 
This same Jesus y which is taken up from you into 
heaven, shall so come in like manner ', as ye have seen 



THE COMING OF OUR LOBD. 



I 9 I 






him go into heaven. " In the first of Corinthians, 
first chapter and seventh verse, Paul says: "So 
that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." So in the first 
chapter of the first of Thessalonians, tenth verse, 
" And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he 
raised from the dead." Also the nineteenth verse 
of the second chapter : " For what is our hope, or 
joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in 
the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his com- 
ing?" And in the thirteenth verse of the third 
chapter : " To the end he may establish your 
hearts, unblamable in holiness before God, even 
our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
with all his saints." In the twenty-third verse of 
the fifth chapter, he says : " And I pray God, your 
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blame- 
less, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
To the same purport, in the second of Thessalo- 
nians, first chapter and seventh verse : " When the 
Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven 
with his mighty angels, in flaming fire." And in 
the eighth verse of the second chapter : " Then 
shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall 
consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall de- 
stroy with the brightness of his coming." So in 
the fifth verse of the third chapter : " And the Lord 



I 9 2 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

direct your hearts into the love of God, and into 
the patient waiting for Christ." In the Epistle of 
James, fifth chapter and seventh and eighth verses : 
" Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming 
of the Lord." " Establish your hearts, for the com- 
ing of the Lord draweth nigh." In the second 
chapter of the first of John, twenty-eighth verse : 
" And now, little children, abide in him ; that when 
he shall appear, we may have confidence and not 
be ashamed before him at his coming." 

The mere reading these, and like passages scat- 
tered through* the New Testament, seem to convey 
instant conviction to the mind, that they shadow 
forth the time mentioned by Daniel, when he says : 
" Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the 
thousand three hundred and five and thirty years." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE MILLENNIUM. 

IN the twentieth chapter of the Revelation of 
Saint John, and sixth verse, we are informed in 
language very similar to that of Daniel : " Blessed 
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrec- 
tion. On such the second death hath no power ; 
but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and 
shall reign with him a thousand years. ,, This is 
what is usually denominated the millennium. Of 
the state and condition of this period, it would 
gratify our curiosity, at least, could we be more 
fully advised than Revelation enlightens us. But 
it cannot be denied, that while the fact of such a 
consummation is affirmed, with unquestionable cer- 
tainty, very meagre information is communicated 
to us in relation to the peculiar conditions which 
surround God's people during its blessed continu- 
ance. In the first and second verses of the same 

9 (*93) 



194 



TEE TIMES OF DANIEL. 






chapter, it is said ; " I saw an angel come down 
from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, 
and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold on 
the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and 
Satan, and bound him a thousand years." And in 
the fourth verse : " I saw thrones, and they sat upon 
them, and judgment was given unto them ; and I 
saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the 
witness of Jesus and for the word of God, and 
which had not worshiped the beast, neither his im- 
age, neither had received his mark upon their fore- 
heads, or in their hands ; and they lived and reign- 
ed with Christ a thousand years." That " great 
serpent, the Devil and Satan," tempted our first par- 
ents to their mortal sin ; and from that time till the 
present, he has been going about like a " roaring 
lion," seeking whom he might devour. As one of 
the grand features of this blessed season, no single 
fact could be more appropriate, necessary and bliss- 
ful than the dispossession of Satan of his power, so 
long exercised to the ruin of vast multitudes of 
our race. Although in Daniel nothing is said 
which defines the duration of this period, yet the 
correspondence between his vision in the seventh 
chapter and this of St. John is very striking and 
impressive : " I beheld till the thrones were cast 
down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose gar- 



THE MILLENNIUM. 195 

ment was white as snow, and the hair of his head 
like the pure w^ool ; his throne was the fiery flame, 
his wheels burning fire ; a fiery stream issued and 
came forth before him ; thousand thousands minis- 
tered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thou- 
sand stood before him ; the judgment was set and 
the books were opened. I beheld then, because 
of the voice of the great words which the horn 
spake ; I beheld even till the beast was slain, and 
his body destroyed and given to the burning flame." 
" I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the 
Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and 
came to the Arcient of days, and they brought him 
near before him. And there was given him do 
minion and gk>sy and a kingdom, that all people, 
nations and languages should serve him." The six- 
teenth chapter of Isaiah would seem to meet the 
contingencies of no other period of the world's his- 
tory : " Violence shall no more be heard in thy 
land ; wasting nor destruction. within thy borders 
but thou shalt call thy walls salvation and tin 
gates praise. The sun shall be no more thy ligh 
by day ; neither for brightness shall the moon giw 
light unto thee ; but the Lord shall be unto thee 
an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. T/r : 
sun shall no more go down ; neither shall thy 
moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine 



I 9 6 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning 
shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all right- 
eous ; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch 
of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may 
be glorified." So the like facts are reaffirmed in the 
sixty-fifth chapter : " Behold, I create new heavens, 
and a new earth ; and the former shall not be re- 
membered, nor come into mind. Be ye glad and 
rejoice forever: for behold I create Jerusalem a re- 
joicing and her people a joy ; and the voice of 
weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the 
voice of crying." Isaiah also in the eleventh chap- 
ter refers in strong terms to the same blessed pe- 
riod : " The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb, and 
the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the 
calf and the young lion and the fatling together ; 
and a little child shall lead them. The sucking 
child shall play upon the hole of the asp, and the 
weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's 
den ; they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy 
mountain." In Zechariah we are told "the Lord 
shall be king over all the earth." 

But nearly all we can learn of this happy period, 
we gather from the Apocalypse : " After this I be- 
held, and lo ! a great multitude which no man 
could number, of all nations and kindreds and peo- 
ple and tongues, stood before the throne and before 



THE MILLENNIUM. 



197 



the lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in 
their hands ; and cried with a loud voice, say- 
ing, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the 
throne, and unto the Lamb." " And I saw a new 
heaven and a new earth ; for the first heaven and 
the first earth were passed away, and there was no 
more sea.*' We repeat what was before quoted of 
this symbol from Faber: " The sea, ever turbulent 
and restless, represents nations in a tumultuary or 
revolutionary state." This indicates a condition 
of perfect peace, when swords shall be beaten into 
plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. " And 
I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming 
down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride 
adorned for her husband. And I heard a great 
voice out of heaven, saying, Behold the tabernacle 
of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and 
they shall be his people ; and God himself shall be 
with them and be their God." "And he carried 
me away in the spirit to a great and high moun- 
tain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jeru- 
salem, descending out of heaven from God, having 
the glory of God ; and I saw no temple therein ; 
for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are. the 
temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, 
neither of the moon to shine in it ; for the glory of 
God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light there- 



198 THE TIME 8 OF DANIEL. 

of. And the nations of them which are saved shall 
walk in the light of it." "And there shall be no 
more curse ; but the throne of God and of the 
Lamb shall be in it ; and his servants shall serve 
him, and they shall see his face ; and there shall 
be no night there/' Such is the condition, so far 
as known, of God's people during this succession 
of blissful years. 

In the third verse of the twentieth chapter of 
Revelation, we are told that after this happy ex- 
perience of a thousand years, in which Satan had 
been bound, crippled, and, doubtless, divested of 
all power to influence and pervert mankind, " he 
must be loosed a little season." And in the seventh 
verse and onward : "And when the thousand years 
are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 
and shall go about to deceive the nations which 
are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Ma- 
gog, to gather them together to battle." How ear- 
nestly soever we may desire to pry into the polity 
and condition of this world at the time and before 
Gog and Magog shall thus meet in deadly conflict, 
we cannot even frame a theory applicable to it, inas- 
much as He, who has revealed so much, has seen 
fit to close up the books, and leave us in ignorance. 
Our aspirations must therefore cease with the close 
of our own dispensation, and all the rest of our 



THE MILLENNIUM. 199 

knowledge must be derived from the fruition of 
Heaven, as it may be hereafter experienced, or 
from some future revelation. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 

HAVING thus given our views of this most 
wonderful prophecy, so far as the "times " 
mentioned by Daniel are concerned, we have now 
only to present a summary of our argument, that 
the reader may the more perfectly comprehend 
our whole theory. The first six chapters of Dan- 
iel relate to matters entirely distinct from those 
which are revealed in the last six ; which last six 
alone form the subject of consideration in this ar- 
gument. 

Beginning with the ninth chapter, Daniel there 
informs us, that in the first year of Darius the Mede, 
namely the year 560 before Christ, " he set his face 
unto the Lord," evidently making supplication as 
to matters relating to the seventy years of the des- 
olation of Jerusalem. He received an answer, 
but upon a subject differing greatly from that which 
(200) 



SUMMABY AND CONCLUSION. 2 0I 

formed the burden of his prayer. He is informed 
of the birth, ministry and death of Messiah, that he 
shall be cut off, but not for himself. He also fore- 
tells the destruction of Jerusalem, soon after, and 
the " overspreading of abominations'' " until the 
consummation shall be poured upon the desolate.'' 
Upon this we present no new view, as all Chris- 
tians have, from the first, so far as known, agreed 
in their application and fulfillment. 

Here commences our departure from the system 
of interpretation heretofore given by those who 
have taken the subject in hand. Our theory 
assumes that the last six chapters of Daniel relate 
to, and only to, the Christian dispensation, except- 
ing so far as other matters become incidentally and 
closely connected with the purposes of that dispen- 
sation, and that, treated in this light, the prophecy 
becomes a symmetrical and almost perfect photo- 
graph of the trials, successes, discouragements, per- 
secutions and final victory of God's people. 

Two years after the vision recorded in the ninth 
chapter, namely, in the first year of the reign of Bel- 
shazzar, he had another vision, with a part of which, 
relating, as is supposed, to Roman history, previous 
to the delivery of the saints into the power of anti- 
christ, we do not meddle, as it is one-side of the 
plan herein proposed. After those revelations, sud- 
9* 



202 



THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 



denly his vision extended down to the very close 
of the Christian dispensation, until the final victory 
of the " Ancient of days." At his request an inter- 
pretation was given, resulting in the same victorious 
conclusion : " I beheld until the same horn made 
war with the saints, and prevailed against them ; 
until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was 
given to the saints of the Most High, and the time 
came that the saints possessed the kingdom." In 
his explanation the person of whom Daniel inquir- 
ed informed him that he (the same persecuting 
power) " shall speak great words against the Most 
High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most 
High, and think to change times and laws ; and 
they shall be given into his hand, until a time, and 
times and the dividing of time. But the judg- 
ment shall sit, and they shall take away his do- 
minion to consume and to destroy it unto the end." 
Assuming the delivery of the saints into the hand 
of this persecuting power to have been the invest- 
ing of Boniface with the Supreme Pontificate, in 
the year 607, it seems a necessary consequence 
that this power must be consumed and finally des- 
troyed in the year 1867. 

In the eighth chapter, he has recorded another 
vision principally relating to the "ram " and "he- 
goat," and after giving an account of their victories 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 



203 



and defeats, Daniel is informed that the sanctuary 
shall be cleansed in (according to the Septuagint) 
two thousand four hundred years. And he is again 
informed by a vision in the tenth chapter that the 
time for consuming will last twenty-one years, 
which two thousand four hundred and twenty-one 
years, from the time the answer was given, would 
end in the year 1867, coinciding exactly with the 
end of the former time, times and half a time. 
Thus the period alluded to and foretold is shown 
by two distinct processes of reasoning, founded 
upon two distinct prophecies, and should end in the 
same year 1867. 

The next great event in the history of the church 
is the rise and progress of Mahometanism, and its 
overspreading and subjecting to its domination the 
Holy Land. It is shown that the Holy City, Jer- 
usalem, was subjugated by the Mahometan power 
in 637, and from Christ and St. John, as well as 
from Daniel, that this subjugation shall continue for 
the space of 1260 years. In Daniel, twelfth chapter 
and seventh verse, we are assured that this dom- 
ination shall continue for a " time, times and a 
half; " while in the Revelation of St. John we are 
told that the Holy City shall be trodden down of 
the gentiles " forty and two months," which, in 
prophetic language, implies the same time exactly. 



204 THE TIME & OF DANIEL. 

But in addition to these two processes of proof, 
founded upon two widely different prophecies, 
Daniel, as if to leave us without excuse for misun- 
derstanding him, in the answer to another question 
is informed that it shall be 1290 years, not from the 
taking of Jerusalem, from which epoch the former 
time must be reckoned, but " from the time that 
the daily sacrifice shall be taken away," and the 
abomination that maketh desolate be set up. Now 
as we have proved, in discoursing upon another por- 
tion of the prophecy, that this was when Boniface 
was made Universal Bishop, in 607, the 1290 will 
end in 1897, precisely the time when, according to 
St. John, Jerusalem shall cease to be trodden down 
of the Gentiles. Here are three distinct prophecies, 
made at different times, by tw^o different prophets, 
under very different circumstances, all culminating 
in precisely the same year of our era. 

The main part of the eleventh chapter is, it can- 
not be doubted, devoted to what is commonly 
known as the " Holy Wars," in which the Saracens 
and Turks have acted so distinguished a part. The 
third, fourth and fifth verses are so clearly drawn 
as to leave, apparently, no room for doubt that they 
are intended to describe the wars and ruin of Chos- 
roes and the initiation of the power of the Caliphs 
over Palestine. We are then told, in the sixteenth 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 205 

verse : " He shall stand in the glorious land, which 
by his hand shall be consumed;" and after recount- 
ing more battles, in the thirty-sixth verse, he " shall 
prosper till the indignation be accomplished ; for 
that that is determined shall be done." And then 
in the forty-fifth verse, apparently after all contro- 
versy has ceased, and he has planted the taberna- 
cles of his palace between the seas, in the glorious 
holy mountain, we are further assured that " he 
shall come to his end, and none shall help him." 

It will thus be seen that these six chapters of 
Daniel, commencing with the ninth and including 
the seventh and eighth, after giving an account of 
the Messiah and the consequent and immediate 
woes of Jerusalem, relate almost entirely to the 
twin delusions of Rome and Mahomet, referring to 
little else but what was incidentally and necessa- 
rily connected w T ith them. 

In the twelfth chapter he condenses more amaz- 
ing and soul-stirring events than may be found in 
any other chapter in all the Bible. First , Daniel 
was informed that at the close, and simultaneously 
with the overthrow of the Mahometan power in 
Palestine, " Michael shall stand up, who standeth 
for the children of thy people ;" giving him assur- 
ance that at that time a change \yill commence in 
the destinies of the Jews, and that change will be 



206 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

a happy one, and sustained by a power that cannot 
be resisted. 

Second, He was informed that at that time 
" should commence also a time of trouble, such as 
never was since there was a nation ;" by the phrase- 
ology clearly indicating that this trouble will not 
be limited in its operation to a single nation. This 
time of trouble is referred to and enlarged upon by 
almost every prophet, both of the Old and New 
Testament ; it is presented in every possible form 
of description, using the most powerful and im- 
pressive symbols, and evidently extending its bale- 
ful influence and withering calamities to all the 
people of the earth. 

Thirdly, He was further informed that at that 
time, and probably during the continuance and at 
the close of these tribulations, "thy people," that 
is, the people of the Jews, " shall be delivered," 
" every one that shall be found written in the book." 
Of this restoration of the Jews, the other prophets 
are full ; but precisely how long these troubles and 
the process of restoration will last, we are not in- 
formed, except inferentially, from a subsequent 
statement of Daniel, which, however, seems to be 
very decisive. 

In the fourth place, we are further informed that 
at that time, either during this time of unspeakable 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 207 

woe to our race, or immediately thereafter, " many 
of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall 
awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame 
and everlasting contempt. " The same astounding 
event appears to be recognized and reaffirmed in 
the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse : " I saw 
the souls of them that were beheaded for the wit- 
ness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and (those) 
which had not worshiped the beast, neither his im- 
age, neither had received his mark upon their fore- 
heads, or in their hands, and they lived and reigned 
with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the 
dead lived not again until the thousand years were 
finished. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in 
the first resurrection.' ' 

Fifth, Passing over the " time, times and a half," 
in the seventh verse, which has been sufficiently 
considered before, we find an angel, clothed in linen, 
under the most solemn oath ever taken, swearing 
by Him that liveth forever and ever, that when he 
shall have accomplished his own purposes, in the 
dispersion of his people, that is, when their restor- 
ation shall have been completed, then " all these 
things shall be finished!' 

Sixth, Again passing over another prophecy of 
1290 years, which has been sufficiently commented 
upon, we come to the last and crowning announce- 



208 THE TIMES OF DANIEL. 

ment of his whole prophecy : " Blessed is he that 
waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred 
and five and thirty days" (years). 

If the premises assumed in this argument be well 
taken, and the reasoning be not defective, this 
blessed consummation must be fulfilled in or about 
the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred 
and forty-two, or forty-five years after the time 
mentioned in the first verse, which seems to be 
unmistakably fixed in the year 1897, and then will 
Jesus Christ the righteous exercise unlimited " do- 
minion from sea to sea and from the river to the 
end of the earth." 

" Let every kindred, every tribe 
On this terrestrial ball, 
To Him all majesty ascribe, 
And crown Him Lord of all." 



THE END. 



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